I firmly believe that the highest leaders of Armenia are far from being as dirty as portrayed (Serge, Robert, Vartan, etc), I can't say the same about the average bureaucrat and government employee because their wages are very low, and I would also steel to feed my family if I was getting 30$ a month. A lot of people criticise them on this forum and in medias in general because it is easy to do so. Few people have the background to actually criticize war heroes. If you go on www.hetq.am you have decent criticism of the regime, it is constructive and intelligent criticism..... not bashing and insulting of the president.
For those who hate kocharian I have a simple question: where were you (or if you were too young, where were your parents) in the summer of 1992 ...... when 48% of karabagh was occupied and tanks were 17km from Stepanakert? Kocharian was in stepanakert, his family too, the option of moving probably existed but he did not take it nor did he send his family away. That's when kocharian first came to a serious power position at the head of the "state defense commitee" with pretty much the following mandate: "To avoid, by any means and by a sort of miracle, the loss of Artsakh and ensure the physical security of the people of Karabagh" .... 2 years later a ceasefire was signed! Of course he did not do all of this alone, the entire nation participated. So where were you? Or your family? The fact is most of us did not participate in the war and neither did our families, mine included (I was too young). I understand that some of you might have been there or members of your families were there, but in general this is an exception, most of us were not present ........ but most of us are present today to insult and bash a president! or a defense minister like Serge or his predecessor Vazgen Sarksian.
People say good things about Vazgen today but it wasn't the case before his death. I was in Armenia during the summer of 1999 and people would destroy Vazgen all day long (he had just been nominated prime minister .... envy and jealousy were all around), forgetting that he had organized the "mahabard" detachment during the same 1992 summer. Today, people say good things about Garen Demirchian? If your memory is good you should remember political conversations in every armenian home during the 80s, try to remember hearing good things about Garen..... I can't.... every taxi driver, every villager, every intellectual would tell you that he was sick of Garen ...... but when he died..... that's another story, everyone cried for him! I guess another proverb armenians use quite often is "kna merir, yegur sirem"!
About diasporans leading Armenia? Well, the first 2 presidents of Armenia were not born on the territory of the soviet socialist republic of Armenia (LTP was born in Syria and Robert in stepanakert).... if Serge, Raffi or Vartan is elected, he will be the 3rd president born outside Armenia! But who cares, as long as the job is well done, right?
Later guys and girls
A.
Edited by Aaron, 20 September 2005 - 08:05 PM.