Today I met with an investigator at the Prosecutor�s office over the death of Vartush Myrig.

The meeting in all took 20 minutes and the question of if I ever heard Vartush Myrig talk about suicide came up 3 times. I told him that she had only mentioned how she was not well looked after by her son and bride and that it was clear that she was not happy with her living conditions, but never did she talk about suicide with me.

He asked me why I was helping her with food? I told him that before the help, she use to beg to the neighbors for food and it became clear that she was not able to provide for herself from the money she received. I also mentioned that I believed that her son was taking a good part of her pension and once she even suggested that.

Though I�m sure if I asked for more details of what had happened, he would have told me what was going on, but I personally don�t want to know too much about this case and will wait to see how the law is applied.

I then went to meet with the Deputy Prosecutor and he started in on me about why was I giving her food? He said that if we suspected that her family was mistreating her, we should have reported it as there are laws that protect her from such treatment.

It seems that the law reads that when one gets old, your children automatically are responsible for your care and only if they withdraw in writing such responsibility and award their elder to the state, they have to answer for their elders welfare. This sure was news to me and seems like a good law that America does not even have.

Unfortunately for Vartush Myrig and fortunately for me, I had never seen her living conditions with my own eyes, though my contractor and I had plans to do that a couple of months ago to see how her life had changed with the aid, but got too busy with the new factory. If I had seen her living conditions and had done nothing about it, I could have possibly been found guilty of some form of negligence.

My conversation with the Deputy Prosecutor went on for an hour as we discussed the law and the lack of how it�s not being applied and enforced.

I asked him if he really feels that if someone had reported the neglect that Vartush Myrig was under if something would have really been done?

I reminded him how I had documented the exploitation of the little adopted girl who has a deformed hand who was put to work to beg for her family and his boss (the Prosecutor) who I reported it too, did nothing and the only one that got fall out over it was me when the abuser complained to President Kocharian, who harassed me instead of upholding the law.

I got the feeling from the Deputy Prosecutor that they were going to charge the son and bride with neglect or causes they created so Vartush Myrig committed suicide or murder.

I would also like to note something for those that make comments on my logs from now on. You can say anything you want in the comments as long as you use a real name and valid e-mail address. If your comment lacks such information, it will be deleted without exception. And of course the �float your boat� policy still does apply even if you do follow all the other rules.

I was speaking to a friend of mine who is an elected member of Parliament and asked him about what we are going to do about the gambling problem. He told me that in the next couple of months, all the casinos in Stepanagert will be closed and will have to relocate away from the city. I asked him if it was because of the hanging and he said he didn�t know.

Well that should give us all a good feeling and some hope that just maybe someone is thinking about the well being of our people.

Today was another very busy day, which I not only got a bunch of work done (business), but I also got some work done around the house that I�ve been wanting to do for a long time.

Rosa Myrig�s husband Hurant, who by profession is a carpenter, came over and worked for an hour shaving all my doors that stick. Though it should have only taken half that time to do this work, he started to talk about all sorts of different things, which slowed him down. It was fun playing apprentice, handing him tools and cleaning up behind him, while listening to him tell about his life and the way things use to be.

Tomorrow will be another very busy day and since I have to be up early, I better try to get to sleep.

I don�t really feel like writing about this, but as it happens, death is something natural that does happen every now and then.

I got a call yesterday morning while I was sitting down for a meal of Khash from the grandson of Vartush Myrig, one of the people that a reader of ours helps out financially.

The grandson asked me where I was and said that he needed to meet with me right away as his grandmother has died, the financial condition at home is not good and if I can redirect the help I was giving his grandmother to them for a few months, that would be very helpful.

I told the grandson that I was busy and I would call him back in a few hours at which time we could discuss it.

Not one hour passed and I get a call from the grandson again, asking me if I had finished what I was doing and could he come see me as they were planning the funeral and needed me to help out with the meal they will serve after they lay his grandmother to rest. I was very short with him told him I was not done and would call him back in a few hours.

Just to give you a little background on Vartush Myrig. She was the exception to all the aid recipients as she was not receiving $50 a month in cash, but had the right to go to a store near her house to get whatever food and clothes she needed. We did this because the son she lived with was taking a good part of her pension (and would do the same with the $50) for himself, in return she had a small room under his house, which the deputy prosecutor when investigating her death described the room to be in worse condition than a stable (goom).

Before calling back the grandson, I called my neighbor to see what had happened with Vartush Myrig and learned that Vartush Myrig burned to death. From her waist to the top of her head was blackened. The police are handling it as a possible murder and the suspects now are the son and his wife. Though no one believes the son would do anything like this since he was benefiting financially, the bride on the other hand did not like Vartush Myrig at all and for years I�ve heard many stories of how the bride was abusive towards Vartush Myrig.

From personal experience with the son, I once let him make a repair on my car while Mama Manoogian and I attended a graduation 3 years ago and not only did he charge me 300% more than any other mechanic in Martuni would have for the repair, he also stole 10 liters of gas and a brand new bucket from my car.

Though there are many things about Vartush Myrig�s son that I�ve seen for my own eyes, the worst and maybe most insignificant, but hurtful that I�ve experienced was when I had her grandson pick 2 laundry baskets full of Pomegranates from my trees to take to Vartush Myrig, as Vartush Myrig and I had a deal when I purchased the house that belonged her only son who really took care of her (he was killed during the war) and that deal was that every year she would get a supply of fruit from the trees her son planted. Well that year after sending off the Pomegranates, Vartush Myrig told my neighbor that she was very pleased that I have been keeping my end of our deal, but this year since I sent the Pomegranates with her grandson and not given it to her directly, her son and wife picked out all the good Pomegranates and gave her the cracked and damaged ones. I was going to go and have it out with the son at that time, but my neighbor advised me that if I did that, it would only make things worse for Vartush Myrig.

Having all that information, I decided that it would be better that I not call the grandson back, but did call the store owner to tell him that under no circumstances are they to give Vartush Myrig�s family anything with the expectation that I would pay them for it. He told me that they had already come and practically cleaned out the store, but he would not expect me to pay for any of it and would make them pay for it.

Well today, Vartush Myrig was laid to rest next to her husband. I didn�t go to the funeral, but was told that it was well attended and my neighbor�s wife (who Vartush Myrig had once asked to be sure to attend her funeral and cry for her as no one will do that otherwise), attended and said that she cried, but not alone, as everyone felt very sorry for Vartush Myrig and the way she died.

Tomorrow I will go alone to visit Vartush Myrig�s grave and take her flowers.

For those of you that are following the Raffi Hovanessian and his bid to run for President story, I think it is going to turn into a huge stink if they don�t allow Raffi to legally run, recognizing his application of 1991 as the start of his citizenship. I say this as the normal process takes about 6 months if there is no extra government red-tape.

The more Raffi pushes this issue and the more the government violates his rights, the more support people will give Raffi and resent Kocharian and his government. I say this as the big question to me here in Artsakh from the general population and government workers is if I have yet received my citizenship? Though it�s not that important to me, it seems to be a very important issue to the people here and it just adds to the resentment they have towards our �elected� president, Goulkasian.

I wont get into details, but will say that Kocharian is knowingly making his way down a very dangerous road and he is not just playing with fire, but a huge bomb that is going to at some point blow up in his face.

Remember what happened in Yugoslavia? I get the feeling that if Kocharian is �elected�, the same thing is going to happen in Armenia and real democracy is going to finally be introduced to Armenia and I believe that Raffi is going to play a huge role in finally bringing that real democracy (which does not exist today) to OUR country.

Bravo Raffi!!! Give them hell and don�t ever let them forget that they are not the only ones living here. They and their 300 friends that control 60%+ of the income to Armenia are the equivalent to a flee on a dogs butt and one good washing can rid up of such a pest.

I�m sorry to have to report this, but after 8 days of waiting, my worst fears may have come true.

It seems that my dog Jhuka (the best garbage disposal I had) is gone. Has he run away, or has he been dognapped? One thing is clear, he is no place to be found. Asking around and calling for him has produced no results.

The last time I saw Jhuka was when I gave him a nice hot meal of macaroni and leftover chicken.

One thing we fear is that someone came into my yard and led Jhuka away. The picture to the right is a representation of what a surveillance camera could have seen in my front yard and the picture below is a representation of what Jhuka looked a little like before he vanished.

One thing I did notice the night following my seeing Jhuka for the last time was the sound of wolves or coyotes under my bedroom window in my neighbor�s yard. Could they have led Jhuka off to join their pack? I can picture him now with a black bandana and patch over his eye, barking out orders to the others in the pack.

I�m also thinking more on the line of these pictures and the man in our surveillane picture who maybe led Jhuka off to work with him since he was so smart and could provide sound advice to that man. I mean that man looks like he is in need of sound advice, don't you think? Okay, maybe the wolves or coyotes make more sense, but you never know.

My neighbor says that I should not give up hope, as maybe Jhuka has found a girlfriend and when he is done having fun, he will come home. I sure hope so, as there was nothing better than the joy I got from seeing Jhuka when I would come home and he would dance around from being so happy to see me.

I guess I really have no luck with dogs. Maybe I should stick to goldfish or pet rocks instead.

I�m really having some problems with my dreams lately. This may sound totally irrelevant to life in Armenia, but since I�m dreaming it here in Armenia, these dreams must have some reflection of life here in a way.

The common theme of my dreams lately is WATER.

Yesterday it was me drinking water and it somehow spills out of my mouth. This didn�t happen one time, but it happened 3 times in 3 different dreams.

In today�s dream, I was driving a boat on a freeway, which people were looking at me as if I was nuts, but the road ends up being flooded and the cars around me had to stop, while I kept going, driving my boat round in the water. I have to tell you that I felt very clever to be in a boat.

I�m not sure what water dream I will have tomorrow, but it�s really starting to bother me to have so many water dreams.

What does this all mean?

I just posted on the Ara Manoogian forum chapter 4 of Shahan Natalie�s �The Turks and Us�. It is titled �BUILDING A NATION�.

For those of you who are new to the logs, I am posting chapters from a book by author Shahan Natalie titled "The Turks and Us".

Natalie was the mastermind behind the terminations of the young Turk leaders and their collaborators who were responsible for the 1915 Armenian Genocide and were in the process of planning a second genocide on the people of Artsakh. In this book, Natalie shares first hand observations as to what happened during and after the genocide.

Today was a very long and exhausting day. I spent the whole day in Stepanagert running around, returning to Martuni in the dark and rain. I wont get into details as it was all the standard run-of-the-mill stuff.

I will tell you about something that happened yesterday, which I heard the conclusion of today.

I am a committee member of the Martuni water project, which is funded by USAID and managed by CRS (Catholic Relief Service). Part of my duty to the committee is to help manage a water project which is to resolve our water projects.

Yesterday I went to inspect work being done in an area near my new factory and while taking pictures of the pipes and work, I see walking towards the houses in the area a fox. Mind you, this was 11 AM and besides the chickens nearby eating from a garbage heap, there were people.

I didn�t notice in which direction the fox went after it went behind some building blocks, but figured that it was going towards the chickens that were eating garbage, so I walked towards that area to scare off the fox.

I neared the chickens and could not see the fox and suddenly, I could hear screaming up the street and could see some commotion. I ran over to see chickens running for their lives and a teenager chasing the fox, who jumped over a wall to escape a stoning the boy was giving it.

Next thing I see are men and young boys running out of their houses with shotguns. I really didn�t get a chance to count, but will estimate a dozen shotgun and maybe 30 people running after the fox.

I didn�t hear any shots, but later learned that they tracked down the fox, killing and skinning it.

I have to conclude that there is a very good chance that this year we will not have a mouse problem in our fields, as if we had mice, most probably the fox would have been stuffed with the little rodents, rather than coming into Martuni in broad daylight, looking for chicken to feed on.

I have to tell you that I felt sorry for the poor fox, but also understand that people can�t allow such a creature to come into the city and make off with their chickens which they raise to feed their families.

I also feel a little bit safer to know that many of my overly protective neighbors have shotguns and in the event of some threat (man or animal) from outside our neighborhood, I believe they know how to deal with it.

HAPPY OLD NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

I know 2003 is going to be the year of the Armenian people and nation�I can feel it!!!

May everyone do what they have to from this point on find what they are looking for in life and follow their dreams so they enjoy all their living days on earth to there fullest.


WELCOME OLD NEW 2003!!!!

Ps. We are welcoming in old new 2003 with rain which started at 12:01am.

Today is the eve of the Old New Year (referred hereafter as �ONY�). I�m not too up on the ONY, but people here seem to know all about it. It seems that based on the old calendar, January 14th of the new calendar is the day that January 1st fell on the old calendar.

A friend of mine gave me 2 candles to light so I could observe the ONY, one of them on the eve and one on the actual day.

So I decided that it would not hurt to play along and put a candle in a candleholder that I got as a gift from someone on the new New Year and lit it after it got dark outside, as I had been instructed.

I guess at midnight I�ll be welcoming in the ONY, that is if I happen to be awake and maybe I�ll even pop open a bottle of the bubbly (Jermuk) to welcome it in..

Happy ONY to all, may it bring to you all you want and then some.

I think I need a cup of coffee because I�m getting a little yawny and if I�m going to be awake to welcome in ONY, I have to do something to rid myself of the darn yawny feeling.

Note: The candle to the left is the actual candle that I have lit to welcome in ONY and the candle that I will light tomorrow will look almost identical to this candle at some point of its burning.

I did the artistic touch up to make it look like it is floating in the clouds (thought that was not my intention and maybe it does not even look like it�s floating in clouds). I wonder if I could do photo touchup for a living? I better keep my day job. Wait, I don�t have a day job!! Oh well.