White Paper on “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund
Part III
By Ara K. Manoogian
When John Danilovich, Chief Executive Officer for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), warned Robert Kocharyan on March 11, 2008, that the program may suffer because of Armenia’s retreat from democracy—the March 1st crackdown, political prisoners—Robert Kocharyan, then the outgoing self-declared president of Armenia, replied that we would find other sources of money. This irresponsible statement is reminiscent of the King of France Louis XV (1710-1774), who is known to have said: “Après moi, le déluge” (After me, the deluge).
The Millennium Challenges made a decision to cut the aid. As a result, 943 km of rural roads were left unrepaired in 265 rural communities of Armenia, and an estimated 6% poverty reduction remained on paper. The MCC press release issued on March 11, 2009 reads: “The Board’s decision today signals to the government that it has failed over several years to address concerns raised not only by MCC and other U.S. Government agencies, but the international community as well.” Moreover, Armenia has been denied eligibility for a second compact, unlike its northern neighbor, Georgia. At its winter quarterly meeting on January 5, 2011, MCC chose Georgia and Ghana as eligible to apply for second compacts, which are “contingent on successful completion of first compacts and continued good policy performance” (Center For Global Development). Continue reading »
Serzh Sargsyan (© ArmeniaNow.com)
Mr. Serzh Sargsyan, members of the Armenian Government and the National Assembly,
The rising death toll and the widespread abuse in the Armenian and Artsakh armies are alarming. Today the cause of the huge wave of public outrage is not only the arithmetic of losses or the fact that more Armenian soldiers are killed by their fellow servicemen than by the enemy, but also the inefficiency of the response from the Ministries of Defense of both Armenia and Artsakh.
Seyran Ohanyan and Pavel Manukyan
The tradition for not punishing military personnel for violence has been set by none other than Colonel-General Seyran Ohanyan, Defense Minister of Armenia, on June 19, 2005. That day Seyran Ohanyan, then the Defense Minister of Artsakh, together with a number of high-ranking military officials—Samvel Karapetyan, Vardan Balayan, Artur Harutiunyan, Vladik Khachatryan, as well as current Defense Minister of Artsakh, Movses Hakobyan—subjected Artsakh war veteran Pavel Manukyan to a severe gang beating within the walls of the Defense Ministry. The incident became a scandal both on TV, and in media, however, it didn’t get as much public attention as it would today thanks to the social networks. Numerous articles were written about the violence committed by High-Ranking Generals, the Armenian authorities called on the their counterparts in Artsakh to conduct an impartial investigation of the matter. The former Artsakh President, Arkady Ghukasyan, promised to guarantee unbiased administration of justice. The tradition for not punishing military personnel for violence has been set by none other than Colonel-General Seyran Ohanyan, Defense Minister of Armenia, on June 19, 2005. That day Seyran Ohanyan, then the Defense Minister of Artsakh, together with a number of high-ranking military officials—Samvel Karapetyan, Vardan Balayan, Artur Harutiunyan, Vladik Khachatryan, as well as current Defense Minister of Artsakh, Movses Hakobyan—subjected Artsakh war veteran Pavel Manukyan to a severe gang beating within the walls of the Defense Ministry. The incident became a scandal both on TV, and in media, however, it didn’t get as much public attention as it would today thanks to the social networks. Numerous articles were written about the violence committed by High-Ranking Generals, the Armenian authorities called on the their counterparts in Artsakh to conduct an impartial investigation of the matter. The former Artsakh President, Arkady Ghukasyan, promised to guarantee unbiased administration of justice. Continue reading »
ARMENIAN SOCIETY SPLIT OVER ARMY CONTROVERSY
By Ara K. Manoogian
Major Sasun Galstyan pulling a soldier's ear
About two weeks ago a scandalous YouTube video of sadism in the Armenian army sent an alarm to thousands of people. Today it’s their reaction to the 4 minute and 42 second video that is more alarming. The question seems to have remained unanswered: is the footage a threat to Armenia’s national security or its content? Shortly after its online debut, the scandalous video disappeared, but I had managed to download it and immediately secured its availability online. I think I know why the other postings disappeared—a few days after I posted my copy of the video I was contacted by the 6th Division of the Armenian Police and the Defense Minister of Artsakh, Lieutenant-General Movses Hakobyan.
The short video documenting an officer—later identified as Major Sasun Galstyan—hitting and humiliating two Armenian soldiers in the Armenian army has crowded the web with numerous articles, blog entries, Facebook discussions and, importantly, comments, which have effectively become a talking mirror of Armenian society. Continue reading »
“Be The Change” – this is how Raw Radio titled its Episode 19, which is an interview I gave the online radio station about my activism on June 3. I believe it turned out to be a very informative 1 hour about a wide scope of issues, with which I have been concerned for the past decade, and which have been the principal agendas of my activism. The issues covered during the interview include corruption in Armenia, human trafficking, problems related to the Diaspora presence in Armenia, the mysterious circumstances of death of Armenian national hero Monte Melkonian, the unresolved gruesome murder of Nazareth Berberian, an American-Armenian businessman and philanthropist and many others. Click here to listen to the podcast.
Monte Melkonian
By Ara Manoogian
“Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute,” Josh Billings, a 19th century popular American humorist, once famously said. But no matter how hard it appears to be, I have no other choice but to start a dialogue with a wall of silence, behind which Ted Bogosian the Truth Seeker has opted to hide. One circumstance, however, plays in my favor: the more garrulous your interlocutor has been preceding his avowed silence, the more vulnerable the latter becomes. This point was brilliantly proven by Ted Bogosian himself just a few days ago in what appeared to be a desperate attempt to stand corrected… by silencing the truth. Continue reading »
By Ara Manoogian
Monte Melkonian (May, 1993)
Seventeen years following his martyrdom in Artsakh, Armenian national hero Monte Melkonian is once again a victim of defamation. I came across a very interesting interview on Radio Open Source with an Armenian decorated filmmaker and documentarian Ted Bogosian. The subject of the interview was Ted’s vocation – seeking the truth and telling it.
Open Source Radio host Christopher Lydon introduced Ted Bogosian as a truth hound and put the ‘what is truth’ question to him (see:
As someone committed to truth seeking, I was at first thrilled to learn about an alternative experience from a prominent Armenian until I heard the following statements made by him: Continue reading »
Ted Bogosian is one of those uncommon journalists and filmmakers for whom the stark truth of the matter is all that counts. Truth at the far pole from truthiness. Emotional truth. Historical truth. Negotiable truth, which is to say: politically useful truth. Truth so awful sometimes that most of us — whether victims, perps or bystanders — would just as soon turn away. Continue reading »
Ted Bogosian is one of those uncommon journalists and filmmakers for whom the stark truth of the matter is all that counts. Truth at the far pole from truthiness. Emotional truth. Historical truth. Negotiable truth, which is to say: politically useful truth. Truth so awful sometimes that most of us — whether victims, perps or bystanders — would just as soon turn away.
In James Der Derian’s “global media” class at Brown, Ted Bogosian is speaking about the PBS documentary that made him famous in 1988: An Armenian Journey was the first, and almost the last, network television treatment in America of the Turkish slaughter of Armenians in 1915. We’re talking as well about the the suddenly hot pursuit of pedophile priests in the Catholic church. Also about Errol Morris’s “feel-bad masterpiece,” the almost unwatched S.O.P., a film search through interviews and reenactments for the truth of Abu Ghraib. And about Kathryn Bigelow’s best-picture Oscar winner The Hurt Locker, yet another box-office bomb about the American war in Iraq. Continue reading »
