244) Armenia Is Trying To Dictate Us Foreign Policy For Selfish And Paranoid Reasons By Samuel A. Weems

The word paranoid defines someone's action as "characterized by extreme suspiciousness, grandiose delusions, or delusions of persecution." The Armenians have all these traits and more! In addition to being paranoid they are also very selfish and they are only concerned with their own welfare and/or interests and have little or no concern for the welfare of others. This character flaw is present in their self-centered attitude illustrated below.

One can be sure, beyond any doubt, that at every instance when the government of the Republic of Turkey proposes anything positive, the Armenians will have a knee-jerk movement to oppose it here in the United States! This is an unfathomable peculiarity even Sigmund Freud could not explain nor could he have had any prognosis for what's ailing the Armenians. Had he been alive today and busy practicing his universally accepted psychoanalysis, even he, the famous Sigmund Freud could not have been able to help them with a remedy.

Consider the latest Armenian actions: At a time when the United States is spearheading the seriousness of a' War on Terrorism', the Armenians scuttle the efforts of the government of the United States of America in this serious fight. The Armenian lobby does everything in its power to overturn the actions of America to the point of almost aiding and abetting the Al Qaeda terrorists. They continue this selfish policy of theirs to the detriment of this country even though they are here, with their hands stretched out begging for billions of our tax dollars in free handouts.

The Administration of President Bush is giving serious thoughts regarding having a regime change in Iraq. There is even talk of a preemptive invasion of that country which has been supporting not only known terrorist organizations but also for its manufacturing and storing of weapons of mass destruction. The Armenians know about such things as they are selling knowledge and materials to Iran to help them manufacture weapons of mass destruction that violates US laws.


It is public knowledge that the government of Turkey was a key supporter of the USA and the 26-nation coalition during the 1991 Gulf War. At that time such support by the Turkish nation cost the Turkish economy more than $50 billion dollars and helped to create the present economic crisis in the country. Iraq was the Turks' number one trading partner. Now the government of the United States is talking anew with the Turks about their support of America.

As expected, with a clockwork precision, the Armenians react to this news in a negative way. Here's how they've been doing this dastardly act:

A few days ago Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, held talks with Turkish leaders in Ankara, Turkey about the possible future U.S. action in Iraq. While Mr. Wolfowitz conducted three-day- long consultations with the Turks in the Turkish capital he made the following friendly overture to the Turks:

"I think a real test of whether a country is a democracy, is how it treats its minorities. And actually it's one of the things that impresses me about Turkish history-the way Turkey treats its own minorities.

"The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has called upon Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to retract what the Armenians call a "controversial statement" he made there, praising Turkey's "historic treatment of minorities."

Aram Hamparian, the executive director of the multi million dollar Armenian lobby (8 million dollars from Armenia's government last year), whose primary job and hidden purpose is to deceive and fleece Americans out of billions of their tax revenues and church dollars. He wrote a letter to object to Mr. Wolfowitz statement to the Turks. In a truly uncalled-for paranoid statement, Mr. Hamparian commented in a typical delusional fashion. He stated his "grave disappointment" about what Mr.Wolfowitz had declared earlier in Ankara. Hamparian accused this American government official of not mentioning the alleged Armenian genocide in his statement, an accusation which has been used ad nauseam for many thousands of times, without a single reference to its originator, a high priest in the Armenian Mother Church in 1915. Mr. Hamparian claims that the official Bush envoy, Mr. Wolfowitz's comment about Turkey, "entirely ignores not only the Armenian Genocide of the World War I era, but also all the other genocidal massacres and deportations of Greeks, of Assyrians, the invasion and occupation of Cyprus, the ongoing campaign against Turkey's Kurdish population, and their unfair and burdensome restrictions on the remaining Armenian, Greek, and other Christian communities."

Mr. Hamparian of ANCA also went on to add "Our government's relationship with Turkey should not be based upon a version of history falsified for the sake of political expediency by Turkey's undemocratic and human right-abusing government." He added: "We (USA) must have the wisdom and courage to speak the truth and to always promote American values as we advance our national interests around the world


"The Armenians represented by Mr. Aram Hamparian have established a slue of web sites to encourage other Armenians to flood the United States Defense Department with their selfish and paranoid complaints. No true American can believe what the Armenians claim. Here are some samplings of their determination in concealing the real truth:

1. The Armenian official from ANCA claims that Turkey has an "undemocratic and human right-abusing government." This person who may have been in his ancient homeland of Armenia many times, and must have surely been exposed there to mass terrorism, now thinks that everyone else is also guilty of the same kinds of violations that they, the Armenians, are known to be guilty of in Armenia. If Mr. Hamparian wants to learn about the real truth, all he has to do is to read the most recent report of the US Department of State on Armenia. This is an official U.S. document, which makes the determination that Armenian authorities are guilty of mass human rights violations. For example the Armenians deprive Armenian women of their basic human rights. They are not allowed to possess any rights of protection against their male dominated society. The Armenian women are afraid of their husbands or boy friends. There are no domestic abuse rights for women in Armenia. Armenia has no respect for its young women. It frequently permits them to be sold into a foreign sex trade industry. There are no laws to protect the Armenian women from ""white slavery". Other examples of a profuse amount of crime, unbelievable unemployment, crooked and fixed elections, corrupt courts are enumerated in the official US report.

The irony is that such things are not being permitted to go on today in Armenia's neighboring country, Turkey. I may say to Mr. Hamparian: "Clean up your own filthy house before you start throwing stones at your neighbor." You may attempt to attack Turkey only after you clean the mess of human rights abuses in your 200 year-old ancient "terrorist" state. Until that time-you should refrain from making unjust and unfounded ugly accusations about the truly tolerant and secular Muslim democracy of Turkey. Armenia could learn from the Turks!

History proves over and over again just how tolerant and magnanimous the Turks have been to the minorities throughout the past and at the present time. Turks think that Turkey belongs to its minorities as well as to the Muslims. There is neither hostility nor animosity among them and the Muslim Turks in their country where over 60.000 Turkish citizens of Armenian origin have been thriving with full privileges of total social, religious, and political freedoms. The cleverly sly and devious accusations of the ANCA representative belie the truth. He wants everyone to believe his own faked and selfish Armenian creative version of truth. Why for example have the Armenians driven out its entire Muslim population? Armenia today is a 95% ethnic/racial pure state. Armenian doesn't want any minorities and it has the nerve to question Turkey? This is just plain "nuts!"


2. The same Mr. Hamparian makes another wild assertion when he says: "We (USA) must always promote American values and courage to speak truth and to always promote American values as we advance our national interests around the world." This statement of his is replete with absolutely ridiculous nonsense. First of all, Mr. Hamparian does not have any right to lecture Americans about "wisdom and courage to speak truth." Let's ask Mr. Hamparian about the recent sanctions the US State Department placed on Armenian business firms for the unethical sale of technical know-how and materials to Iran in helping Armenia's fellow terrorist state, for the purpose of building weapons of mass destruction. This is a clear violation of American law! Why is Mr. Hamparian not telling the truth? What sort of American values is he talking about? What is it that he wants to hide from us, the real American citizens?

3. Armenia is on record for having borrowed $50 million dollars from the United States in the past but it refuses to repay even a red cent of that loan. Nevertheless, recently, the same Armenians have borrowed $100 million from the Russians and they are repaying hastily that particular loan. Since Mr. Hamparian speaks of telling the truth, then isn't it time for him to do the same and explain this double standard once and for all? He should also ask his employer, the Armenian government, to pay all its debts to the USA. This is a matter of national honor! To repay a just debt is a most decent thing to do. Armenia of today is doing the opposite and it is trying to fleece and deceive Americans out of their hard-earned paid tax revenue dollars while telling us how to run our governments national defense department.

It is also past time for Mr. Hamparian to explain to the American people — who have given his tiny state some $1.5 billion dollars in aid over the past ten years — just why does Armenia need two Russian army bases? Why does Armenia need two Russian airbases? Why does Armenia need countless numbers of Russian surface to air missile batteries? Why does Armenia need so many Russian soldiers and air force personnel to be stationed in their tiny state? Why did Armenia take more than $1 billion dollars in military hardware from the Russians in 1992? I'll tell him why! It was done so in order to invade its peaceful neighbor Azerbaijan. What manner of "values" are these that this Armenian speaks about-they aren't American values! They certainly are not part and parcel of the American "wisdom" either!

4. Mr. Hamparian whines that Turkey invaded Cyprus. First of all, it was not an invasion. It was an intervention on behalf of the thousands of Turkish Cypriots who were being butchered by the Greek 'ethnic cleansing'. Under the same circumstances America would have done exactly the same thing! Everyone knows how terribly the Turkish people of Cyprus suffered from the bloodshed of the terrorist Greek organization EOKA. His comment is a typically paranoid, self-serving statement. It is devoid of the truth. What this Armenian says has no relationship with truth or honesty.

5. Mr. Hamparian complains about Turkey's "ongoing campaign against its Kurdish population." This lie stems from the 'pits of hell!' This American writer spent time in a small fishing village in southern Turkey just last year. The Kurdish population of that village (some 400 of them) staged a very public and open festivity connected to the circumcision ceremony of a young boy of Kurdish heritage. The celebrations lasted a whole week. Neither in that village nor in any other part of Turkey did I see or hear of any "ongoing campaign against Kurds". Perhaps Mr. Hamparian was referring to the Turks' "on-going campaign" against the despicable PKK terrorists in the southeastern mountains of Turkey where the Kurdish insurgents supported by the Armenian government were finally irradiated. Our U.S. government would have waged a similar campaign against such terrorists if they were operating here in the United States of America. Therefore, the statement made by Mr.Hamparian is simply outrageous and it is totally unfounded.

Mr. Hamparian makes up and tells a big tall tale when he claims the Turks have "unfair and burdensome restrictions on the remaining Armenian, Greek, and other Christian communities." There he goes again-playing the race/religion card of Christian vs. Muslim factions. This has been the game played by this tiny state ever since 1918 and even earlier. This statement was started as a lie when one of Armenian high priests first told it in 1915 and it is still a great lie today!


I, as a Christian American writer, spent two months in Turkey last August and September producing a Christian video documentary. I did not see nor hear of any such "restrictions" on any Christian in Turkey, where I visited many churches including several of Mr. Hamparian's Armenian churches. It is Armenia that has the restrictions on all other religions, be they Christian, Muslim or any other kind! The Armenians have driven out all minorities from their tiny landlocked place they call an "ancient homeland". In reality the Russian Czars gave that piece of land to them less than 200 years ago. No church is allowed to operate in Armenia except the one and the only state-approved one that is owned by the Armenian Mother Church. There is not a single mosque permitted to operate in Armenia. I personally visited several Armenian churches in Turkey. They are regularly open and operating freely daily. There are also Protestant, Catholic, Greek Orthodox churches and Jewish synagogues in Turkey. None of these churches or synagogues are permitted to operate in Armenia. Just who is this Armenian to claim American truth and American values when he promotes such evil in his own tiny homeland?

The Armenians have less than 5% minority population today in their tiny state. They learned well about how to go about racial cleansing from their Nazi partners in World War II. I ask of the following question, Mr. Hamparian: " If Turkey has so 'many burdensome and unfair restrictions on its minorities' then why in the world are there more open and operating Armenian churches in Turkey than there are in your Armenia? Until such a time when Hamparian can explain this one simple fact, I suggest that he stop meddling in American foreign policy! Armenians have proven to me and to the rest of humanity that they have never been loyal American citizens and this attack on the US Defense Department proves this point very succinctly. Such Armenian conduct isn't allowed withinn the United States and Mr. Hamparian knows it. Why would he make up such a false tall tale? Is he selfish-yes he is! Is he paranoid-yes he is! Should any real American believe him-no they shouldn't!

6. Mr. Hamparian claims that the United States Defense Department "ignores" the alleged Armenian Genocide, which has allegedly taken place during World War I. The US Department of Defense is quite right to ignore the Armenians because there was never a genocide during World War I and Mr. Hamparian knows it, but he still continues to prevaricate the truth. Turkey has been a friend, a staunch ally and a partner of America since World War II. Armenia, on the other hand, has been an enemy of America since that time. The truth is that the Armenians have been first 'good Commies' then 'good Nazis' and then once more 'good Communists' one more time. The notion of allegiance has always been a game and a 'joke' for them.


The Turks have voluntarily sent their young men into harm's way with Americans time and time again. The Armenians have never sent a single one of their young men to fight along side of Americans because they are always too busy stealing other people's lands. Until the Armenians stop being the enemy of America and start sending their troops to fight and die with the Americans — Mr. Hamparian and all his friends had best keep their duplicitous complaints and sham accusations about Turkey to themselves. This American taxpayer is fed-up with the lying and fleecing of his country by a gaggle of selfish and paranoid Armenians.

7. In 1992 Christian Armenia made a sneak attack on Muslim neighbor Azerbaijan (with a billion dollars of Russian help). The Armenian commandos swooped down on the Azeri villages during a freezing winter night and put to knife over 5,000 men, women, and children while they slept in their beds. Subsequently, Armenia, backed by the Russians, stole more than 20% of Azerbaijani land and uprooted more than one million Azerbaijani citizens from their homes. This is none other than a 'grand larceny'. By doing so the Armenians perpetrated the 21st century's first land grab in association with their Russian political masters because it continues to this very day. Thus the Armenians stole their neighbor's lands. This is the naked truth. There is no denying it! Many in the USA are of the opinion that it is past time for the United States government to stop financing Armenia's dirty little ethnic/racial cleansing war. To continue to give our tax dollars to Armenia means we Americans approve of these terrorists actions by a gaggle of people who call themselves fellow Christians. Christ would never approve of the Armenian Christian conduct and neither should American Christians!

8. Mr. Aram Hamparian, as the highly paid lobbyist from ANCA, has the audacity to claim that Turkey committed genocide in 1915. This is not so! Turks did not do anything of the sorts. Besides Turkey did not become a republic until 1923. The whole thing is plain 'poppy cock'.


9. It is past time for American taxpayers to see Armenians for what they are -deadbeat-terrorists, who want something for nothing! It is none of the Armenians business to know 'whom America deals with.' Mr. Hamparian in particular and all the other Armenians in general should keep their evil thoughts to themselves. They may continue to be the mendicants and the panhandlers that they have always been and keep on begging billions of dollars from the American government and from American Christian communities as they have been doing since time immemorial. This is the only Armenian way they have ever known -they lie, fleece, deceive and try to tell another country how to conduct its foreign policy. Enough, is enough! If these mean-spirited little people don't like the way we Americans run our national defense they can go back to Armenia. Of course that will never happen because they will not give up their soft living standards to go back to such a cold, hard terrorist state!

It is past time for the tax paying American public to demand that their foreign aid to Armenia be cut off until such time as they begin to practice the real Christian faith as practiced here in the United States. The Armenian "Christian" bizarre way is not the way of the United States. Armenian "Christian" lies, fraud, deceit, and terrorism, are among the reasons why the United States Congress should resolve to protect this country from the ravages of the Armenian lobby. When the Armenians win an issue it is the United States who loses the fight for its innocent uninformed and basically good-hearted citizens. Every true United States taxpayer should begin a personal lobby campaign to cut off all Armenian funding until they act like the Christians they falsely claim to be.

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A DEN OF SNAKES

By SAMUEL A. WEEMS

I grew up on a farm in the southern United States of America. As a boy working on the farm I would from time to time discover a den of snakes. There would always be a countless number of them wound up together ready to strike out at anyone or anything that came close to them. The more snakes in a den the larger it was.

This is exactly the way modern day Armenians are when they escape from what they call their "ancient homeland" where the average monthly income is less than $25 for a person if they are lucky enough to have a job. Once they escape their tiny land-locked state they find a good place in another land and then den up together.

Over the past ten years more than one million Armenians have fled from their self-anointed "ancient homeland" that the Russians gave to them after they took the lands from the original Muslim owners. The Russians used superior numbers and armed force to kill and force the Muslim population off their real "ancient homelands." The Russians then moved fellow Armenian Christians onto these Muslim properties. They began giving Muslim lands to Armenians less than 200 years ago. Even with almost 200 years of armed Russian help, there are today less than 2 million Armenians left in their Russian given "ancient homeland."

Wherever Armenians go throughout the world they den up together just like the snakes of my youth. Most of the one million Armenians who escaped from their tiny state over the past ten years went to Russia where they continued to den up together. The Russian press has just reported a typical "Russian" problem.


Krasnoarmeisk is a city of some 25,000 people. This city is located about 25 miles north of the Russian capital city of Moscow. A large number of "illegal" Armenian immigrants have settled in this city.

In early July there was a fight in a Krasnoarmeisk café between Russians and Armenians. A 43 year old Armenian, Garik Sayan, stabbed 26 year old Russian, Izor Samoluk. The Armenian knife attack set off a Russian riot. Russians marched through the city attacking anyone who even looked liked an Armenian.

A few days later there were non-violent protests by angry Russian citizens who objected to the illegal Armenian immigrants. A new organization has opened in Moscow and it has a web site titled "The Movement Against Illegal Immigrants" at voinru.hotbox.ru

The Movement Against Illegal Immigrants states: "We are the masters of our own home and it's the right of the master to decide in which room to settle a guest and for what duration, or whether or not to let him in at all, for example, when a guest comes only to rob you or to kick you from your own home."

Last Friday there was a mass Russian anti-Armenian protest rally in the city-square of Krasnoarmeisk. The anti-Armenian protest rally was shown on Russian television. One older woman addressed the large crowd and stated: "As a grandmother, as a mother, I do not want these people here. They do not live here and they are not registered here. Let them stop crowding us out of our markets." Other Krasnoarmeisk citizens loudly objected to the Armenian takeover of the city's markets, shops and cafes and even the hospitals.


The Russians have been the best friends and blood brothers of the Armenians dating back to the early 1800s when Czarist Russia began taking Muslim lands by armed force and then recruiting Armenian Christians to come and resettle on the land. Now the Russians are beginning to pay a terrible price for moving the Armenians into these lands. In every country of the world-self-interested Armenians move in and den up together. Perhaps the Russians will now learn from their mistake in judgment and stop pumping billions of dollars in aid as loans and military hardware into the landlocked tiny place called Armenia.

The Russians are learning what Americans have learned dating back to 1918 and forward to this present day. No nation can ever give the Armenians enough to satisfy their greed and lust for other people's lands and property. Armenians are taught from birth by their state-owned, one and only Church that the world owes them whatever they ask or demand -for free!

The Armenian Church teaches hate not love ! It is past time for all nations to stop treating the Armenian den of snakes as honored guests. The Armenians have no appreciation for what any nation gives and does for them. Russia is the latest of a long line of examples of Armenian freeloading.

RELATED NEWS ACCOUNT
Angry Town Wants to Kick Out Immigrants
By Oksana Yablokova, Staff Writer

Monday, July 15, 2002

Less than a week after a violent clash between ethnic Russians and Armenians in a Moscow region town, several hundred residents gathered outside the local administration building Friday to demand the expulsion of illegal immigrants and the release of two Russian men who were arrested during the clash.

Speakers were shown on television addressing a crowded square in Krasnoarmeisk, a town of 25,000 people located 15 kilometers north of Moscow, and urging authorities to expel immigrants, mainly from the Caucasus region, who lack proper residence and registration documents.

"As a grandmother, as a mother, I do not want these people to be here," a woman was shown on NTV television shouting into a microphone. "They are not registered here, they do not live here. Let them stop crowding us out of our markets." Other agitated Krasnoarmeisk residents shouted that Armenians control not only the town's markets, shops and cafes but also its hospitals.

Vitaly Pashentsev, head of the Krasnoarmeisk administration, defended the residents' right to protest. "There are no chauvinist roots to this," he said, Reuters reported. "Residents simply ask people to live according to the norms established here. And I believe that is a fair, proper demand."

The clashes last Sunday began with a brawl in a local cafe in which Igor Samoluk, 26, was stabbed with a knife by ethnic Armenian Garik Sayan, 43. A group of enraged ethnic Russians then drove through the town, attacking anyone who looked like a native of the Caucasus. Wielding wooden sticks, the attackers injured at least 12 people, five of whom were hospitalized.


Armenians said Russians forced their way into apartments occupied by Armenians and beat up male residents.

Police denied the violence was ethnic. Sayan was arrested and charged with purposefully inflicting severe injury, and two of the Russian attackers were jailed on charges of hooliganism, RIA Novosti reported.

The loudest and most active of the protesters on Friday were relatives and friends of the two Russian detainees.

No violence was reported during Friday's protest, a spokesman for the regional police said. Local police watched but did not interfere to avoid provoking disturbances, the spokesman was quoted by Interfax as saying. Pashentsev said police will stay on alert for at least a week.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the protest. The Kommersant newspaper reported that anonymous leaflets urging locals not to give their city over to "alien hands" and to come to the rally had been posted around the city two days before.

A group of seven men clad in black military-style uniforms, a sign of membership in an extremist organization, were spotted among the protesters, news reports said.

Yevgeny Bykov, a spokesman for the ultranationalist Pamyat organization, confirmed thaN some of the group's activists were at the rally but he said they had not organized it.

"Our goal is to be in places where the rights of Russians, the title nation, are abused by people of other nationalities who are involved in criminal activities. We turned up there to support our brothers," Bykov said in a telephone interview Sunday.

Pamyat is one of the oldest nationalist and anti-Semitic groups in Russia, but the number of its supporters has declined. Bykov would not say how many followers the group has across Russia.


Friday's rally got outspoken support from a new group called the Movement Against Illegal Immigrants, whose web site appeared last Wednesday at voinru.hotbox.ru. According to the site, the movement was created by several residents of Moscow and the Moscow region in response to clashes between locals and immigrants, including the clash in Krasnoarmeisk. Its aim is to fight illegal immigrants by all legitimate means, the movement's statement said.

"We are the masters of our own home and it's the right of the master to decide in which room to settle a guest and for what duration, or whether not to let him in at all, for example, when a guest comes only to rob you or to kick you from your own home," is the movement's motto. The web site carries no contact information other than an e-mail address.

It was unclear what role if any the movement played in organizing Friday's rally, although the first item on its agenda is organizing mass public actions against illegal immigrants. The web site also called for the release of the two detained men.

Alexander Markin, the prosecutor of the Pushkin region, to which Krasnoarmeisk belongs, was quoted in Saturday's Izvestia as saying those behind the web site face criminal prosecution for inciting ethnic hatred.

Racially motivated attacks are not new to Moscow and other Russian cities, but mass protests against people from the Caucasus are rare in central Russia.

Staff Writer Nabi Abdullaev contributed to this report.

A Desperate, Destitute Nation Deserts Itself
Monday, April 30, 2001


Armenia: Massive exodus dashes dreams born with independence in 1991.
By JOHN DANISZEWSKI, Times Staff Writer

CHARENTSAVAN, Armenia--Masis Kocharian is a typical resident of this town, which is to say that he is tired, poor and yearning to be gone. He is so desperate to get away--like half of the town before him--that given the chance he will offer you his two-room apartment in a workers dormitory and all the furnishings. All he asks for in return is bus fare to Russia and a few dollars to get settled there--maybe $250 at most. "And I promise," he adds, "you will never see me again." To Armenian patriots, Kocharian is an all too common example of a national dream gone sour.

For centuries, Armenians were a people without a state, ruled over by Turks, Persians, Mongols and Russians. In World War I--their blackest hour--they were rounded up, starved, raped and murdered in a genocide that foreshadowed the worst crimes of the century.

Those who survived took sanctuary under Soviet rule or scattered across Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, keeping alive their 1,700-year-old Christian faith, their customs and their language with its unique alphabet invented by a monk in AD 404.

Then, in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, an unforeseen opportunity opened up. For the first time since the Middle Ages, the Armenian people had their own sovereign state, a homeland where they could return, prosper and build a secure future for their children.

Ten years later, however, the hopes remain unfulfilled. Instead of the Armenian diaspora flocking home to build their country, the opposite is occurring: Armenians are leaving at an alarming pace. Of the nearly 3.7 million living in the country at the time of independence, an estimated 1 million have left.

Standing in the square of this poverty-ridden factory town, where all nine plants have shut down, it's easy to see why they go. Clothes are shabby. Cheeks are hollow. Belts are cinched tight. Desperation is written on almost every face. And almost every day, the buses leave for Russia and beyond, carrying a new cargo of emigrants.

Designed as a model industrial city 20 miles north of the capital, Yerevan, to serve the aims of the Soviet Union, Charentsavan lost its economic purpose when the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Cut off both from raw materials and customers, its defense, tool, cement and machine-making factories collapsed. Armenia's six-year war with its eastern neighbor, Azerbaijan, over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, and a consequent trade embargo with its western neighbor, Turkey, only worsened the suffering. The town began to wither. Out of a population of 45,000, more than 20,000 people have left, says Charentsavan Mayor Rudolf Mnatsakian.

Of those still here, at most 2,200 have jobs. "It is a tragedy for our town and for Armenia," he says. "We are trying to stop the emigration, but nature is stronger: If there is nothing to eat in a family, it is only logical to leave."

Bus station manager Yuri Gasparian adds it up: "The math is simple. An average monthly salary is $6, while a kilo of bread costs 38 cents. So your salary is not even enough to buy you bread and water."

Despite Foreign Aid, 80% Live in Poverty

Charentsavan is not unique in Armenia. Aside from the thin layer of development in the capital, the country is grindingly poor. Despite $1.4 billion in U.S. aid over the past decade, and the government's attempts to promote commerce and investment, 80% of the country's people live in poverty on less than $25 a month, says sociologist Gevorg Poghosyan. The official unemployment rate is 17%, but a more accurate figure is 50%, he says. And even people who have jobs often don't get paid. Under the circumstances, economic emigration has hidden benefits for Armenia, Poghosyan points out. Those who leave find jobs abroad--mostly in Russia--and send money back to their dependents here. "It means less social and political tension, because those people are not all here demanding work," he says.

But on the other side, "it is very bad, because we have lost our population. Armenia is being depopulated. Families are breaking up," he says. "And those who are leaving are the ones who are the most economically active."

The emigration is also reflected demographically. With so many men working abroad, Poghosyan says, there are now 57 women to every 43 men, an imbalance that hinders the creation of families.

Poghosyan, head of the Armenian Sociological Assn., says that three-fifths of the emigres go to Russia because it is nearby and because they have no language difficulties there. One-fifth go to Western Europe or the United States, and the others are dispersing around the world. (There are many more ethnic Armenians outside Armenia than inside it. Southern California, with 800,000, is considered the world's second-largest Armenian center after Yerevan.)

"If you have the chance to leave Armenia, you must do it," says Kocharian, the man desperate to sell his apartment. "And as soon as possible."

Kocharian and his wife live on the fifth floor of the workers dormitory. He has not seen their children in the four years since he sent them to live with relatives in Russia. At the moment, he says, he cannot even afford a stamp to answer his son's latest letter. Once a driver, Kocharian has not held a steady job in 10 years.

"Now I survive on buying things cheaply and then trying to sell them in a different village, with a very small markup," he says. "But it gives me too little."

If he makes it to Russia, he vows, he will be happy to dig the earth with a rusty spade or to clean toilets--anything to survive.

History Weighs Heavy on an Ancient Society

The principal of Charentsavan High School No. 5, Pap Shakhnazarian, says he has seen enrollment fall from 1,175 in 1986, when he started as a mathematics teacher, to 560. Forty students have left since September. "If the exodus of Armenians is not stopped, there will be no one left in this country in a couple of years," Shakhnazarian says. "It is strange, this feeling like a boarder in your own country. You know that . . . sooner or later, you too will have to leave."

The other two newly independent ex-Soviet states next door, Georgia and Azerbaijan, have also seen their populations severely depleted, losing more than half a million people each, for similar reasons.

(The rest of the article gets into the familiar terrain of genocide victimization.)

Monday, April 30, 2001
A Desperate, Destitute Nation Deserts Itself
Armenia: Massive exodus dashes dreams born with independence in 1991.
By JOHN DANISZEWSKI, Times Staff Writer

CHARENTSAVAN, Armenia--Masis Kocharian is a typical resident of this town, which is to say that he is tired, poor and yearning to be gone. He is so desperate to get away--like half of the town before him--that given the chance he will offer you his two-room apartment in a workers dormitory and all the furnishings. All he asks for in return is bus fare to Russia and a few dollars to get settled there--maybe $250 at most. "And I promise," he adds, "you will never see me again." To Armenian patriots, Kocharian is an all too common example of a national dream gone sour. For centuries, Armenians were a people without a state, ruled over by Turks, Persians, Mongols and Russians. In World War I--their blackest hour--they were rounded up, starved, raped and murdered in a genocide that foreshadowed the worst crimes of the century. Those who survived took sanctuary under Soviet rule or scattered across Europe, the Middle East and the Americas, keeping alive their 1,700-year-old Christian faith, their customs and their language with its unique alphabet invented by a monk in AD 404. Then, in 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, an unforeseen opportunity opened up. For the first time since the Middle Ages, the Armenian people had their own sovereign state, a homeland where they could return, prosper and build a secure future for their children. Ten years later, however, the hopes remain unfulfilled. Instead of the Armenian diaspora flocking home to build their country, the opposite is occurring: Armenians are leaving at an alarming pace. Of the nearly 3.7 million living in the country at the time of independence, an estimated 1 million have left. Standing in the square of this poverty-ridden factory town, where all nine plants have shut down, it's easy to see why they go. Clothes are shabby. Cheeks are hollow. Belts are cinched tight. Desperation is written on almost every face. And almost every day, the buses leave for Russia and beyond, carrying a new cargo of emigrants. Designed as a model industrial city 20 miles north of the capital, Yerevan, to serve the aims of the Soviet Union, Charentsavan lost its economic purpose when the Soviet Union ceased to exist. Cut off both from raw materials and customers, its defense, tool, cement and machine-making factories collapsed. Armenia's six-year war with its eastern neighbor, Azerbaijan, over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, and a consequent trade embargo with its western neighbor, Turkey, only worsened the suffering. The town began to wither. Out of a population of 45,000, more than 20,000 people have left, says Charentsavan Mayor Rudolf Mnatsakian. Of those still here, at most 2,200 have jobs. "It is a tragedy for our town and for Armenia," he says. "We are trying to stop the emigration, but nature is stronger: If there is nothing to eat in a family, it is only logical to leave." Bus station manager Yuri Gasparian adds it up: "The math is simple. An average monthly salary is $6, while a kilo of bread costs 38 cents. So your salary is not even enough to buy you bread and water."

Despite Foreign Aid, 80% Live in Poverty Charentsavan is not unique in Armenia. Aside from the thin layer of development in the capital, the country is grindingly poor. Despite $1.4 billion in U.S. aid over the past decade, and the government's attempts to promote commerce and investment, 80% of the country's people live in poverty on less than $25 a month, says sociologist Gevorg Poghosyan. The official unemployment rate is 17%, but a more accurate figure is 50%, he says. And even people who have jobs often don't get paid. Under the circumstances, economic emigration has hidden benefits for Armenia, Poghosyan points out. Those who leave find jobs abroad--mostly in Russia--and send money back to their dependents here. "It means less social and political tension, because those people are not all here demanding work," he says. But on the other side, "it is very bad, because we have lost our population. Armenia is being depopulated. Families are breaking up," he says. "And those who are leaving are the ones who are the most economically active." The emigration is also reflected demographically. With so many men working abroad, Poghosyan says, there are now 57 women to every 43 men, an imbalance that hinders the creation of families. Poghosyan, head of the Armenian Sociological Assn., says that three-fifths of the emigres go to Russia because it is nearby and because they have no language difficulties there. One-fifth go to Western Europe or the United States, and the others are dispersing around the world. (There are many more ethnic Armenians outside Armenia than inside it. Southern California, with 800,000, is considered the world's second-largest Armenian center after Yerevan.) "If you have the chance to leave Armenia, you must do it," says Kocharian, the man desperate to sell his apartment. "And as soon as possible." Kocharian and his wife live on the fifth floor of the workers dormitory. He has not seen their children in the four years since he sent them to live with relatives in Russia. At the moment, he says, he cannot even afford a stamp to answer his son's latest letter. Once a driver, Kocharian has not held a steady job in 10 years. "Now I survive on buying things cheaply and then trying to sell them in a different village, with a very small markup," he says. "But it gives me too little." If he makes it to Russia, he vows, he will be happy to dig the earth with a rusty spade or to clean toilets--anything to survive.

History Weighs Heavy on an Ancient Society The principal of Charentsavan High School No. 5, Pap Shakhnazarian, says he has seen enrollment fall from 1,175 in 1986, when he started as a mathematics teacher, to 560. Forty students have left since September. "If the exodus of Armenians is not stopped, there will be no one left in this country in a couple of years," Shakhnazarian says. "It is strange, this feeling like a boarder in your own country. You know that . . . sooner or later, you too will have to leave." The other two newly independent ex-Soviet states next door, Georgia and Azerbaijan, have also seen their populations severely depleted, losing more than half a million people each, for similar reasons. But the exodus is especially poignant for Armenia, whose people have paid a bitter price in the last century for the lack of a secure state. Armenians are one of the oldest societies in recorded history. They were known 2,500 years ago to ancient Persia, mentioned by Greek historian Herodotus and described by the geographer Strabo before the birth of Christ. Contemporary Armenians regard themselves as the descendants of the sons of Noah, whose ark after the flood is supposed to have landed on Ararat, the snow-glazed mount that they consider their national emblem. From any tall building in Yerevan today, one can easily see Ararat rising majestically nearly 17,000 feet, its green-gray slopes and rounded peak dominating the horizon. But it is difficult for Armenians to go there. Mt. Ararat now lies on the other side of a heavily fortified frontier with Turkey. The sight of it is a daily reminder to Armenians of how they were cut off from the western sphere of their traditional land in what they consider the first example of genocide in the 20th century. "Every morning I look at it, and every morning I remember what happened to my family," says Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan, whose grandparents lived in what was then called Turkish Armenia. Historians differ on how many people died at the hands of Turkish nationalists in 1915 and 1916. Outside Turkey, estimates up to 1.5 million are generally accepted. But Turkey itself denies that there was ever an organized plan to exterminate Armenians en masse. To the Armenians, however, the results speak for themselves, says Lavrenty Barsekian, director of the Armenian Genocide Museum and Memorial, a Soviet-built gray granite needle rising 144 feet above a hill overlooking Yerevan. Barsekian notes that today's Armenia is only a remnant, the smaller portion of Armenian lands that fortunately were under Russian rule at the time of the genocide. He credits Armenians abroad, the descendants of those who fled or were deported, with keeping alive the memory of those who were killed. "The world must remember these acts, so that a genocide will never be repeated in the 21st century," he says. Outside Yerevan, in the peaceful, tree-lined precincts of Echmiadzin, the home of His Holiness Karekin II, the Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, the tragedies of the genocide and the nation's present economic crisis intermingle in the minds of clerics. Sitting outside the main cathedral, where a petrified relic of Noah's Ark is said to be preserved, a newly minted priest, 24-year-old Father Ignatius, expresses his feelings. "I can only say with confidence that the church hopes for a better future," he says. "Now there are no obstacles. For our nation, now is the time that the economic revival and the spiritual revival can begin."


* * * Alexei V. Kuznetsov of The Times' Moscow Bureau contributed to this report. Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times

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