Aaron

I think it will be accepted (legally or with the traditional armenian "push") and it would be a positive think. no big changes will be witnessed but nevertheless, it is a step forward towards democratization (officially that is... but it's better than nothing, no?) A.

Harut's first question: I think he should still serve in the Army...or don't go to Armenia before 27. Perhaps a paying system could be set up for people under 27 which allows avoiding military service by legally paying a considerable fee (I think it already exists). In any case, the law has to make it clear that you have to EARN your citizenship somehow (for someone from outside): permanent residency, tax paying, military service, major investment, etc. As for those who have left the country in the last 15 years, regulations should be much more flexible since they are the ones who most probably will return .... if return occurs! Also, I don't think duration of military service should be the same for someone born and raised in Armenia vs. someone born and raised outside and having never lived there previously. For the second part: It's true, the country has a 1001 problems, but amending the constitution will not necessarily mean adoption of dual citizenship. The process of establishing appropriate laws through parliament may take long years and even longer debates within the politicians and the public..... bringing us closer to a solution. When you exchange ideas about something it becomes easier to solve it, no? Constitution amendments only eliminate a ban.... the rest is ours to decide! Eventually, this issue should be solved so that Armenia does become a homeland of all armenians (someone could have more than 1 homeland, just as someone can have more than one house!). This is my stance. A.

Some people are really making a big deal out of this issue! Interference of other countries in armenia's inner affairs, people leaving the country, not giving satisfaction to diasporans, etc. kavat me churi mech kheghtvetsank? In short, with the amended constitution and proper laws, the deal should be something like: You were born and raised outside Armenia? you can become a citizen if you come here and serve in the army, for a certain period and if you are under 27-30. If you are over 30, no need to serve but you'll have to pay taxes. In all cases you'll get citizenship only if you live here for a given period of time, meaning to be a pemanent resident and paying taxes (just like in any other country, ex: 1 or 2 years, including military service), you'll get the right to vote if you stay even longer (ex. 5 years or more). You get the right to be elected after an even longer period (ex. 10 years). You're an armenian that left Armenia in the last 15 years? You can have citizenship but voting rights only if you have been a permanent resident (lived in Armenia and have payed taxes) for 5 years (or longer). If you are under 30 (or 27), you still have to serve in the Army. This way, those who really want to become citizens while keeping their other citizenship, can do it and participate in Armenia's life. That's it! No need to make a drama out of it! This was my personal view and details will be decided when voting the laws in parliament of course! A.

The saga continues! The ICG (International crisis group) completed its second report which focuses on a peace plan for Karabagh. The document can be downloaded in PDF format from the following address. http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3740&l=1&m=1 The first study can also be found on the same site and is entitled "Nagorno Karabagh: viewing the conflict from the ground". They are both worth reading to have a good understanding of where the conflict resolution is and may be headed from the perspective of western countries! I just finished reading the latest report. In my view, it could only work in theory, some points must be modified and reconsidered due to lack of pragmatism from the ICG. Read it and let me know! A.

We would have the funniest pres. in the world... it could actually be positive, lol! A.

Vardan Oskanian will not be president and will not even run for it. He is not the appropriate person to run a caucasian country (although he has many qualities). In my view, the main candidates are Serge Sarkissian (not as bad as he seems, by the way!), Arthur Baghdassarian, Aghvan Hovsepian, from today's ruling side and: Raffi Hovanissian, Demirdjian, Aram sarkissian, and artashes geghamian from the opposition. If the vote was held today, I would vote for Serge! He is by far the most hated man in Armenia ... but he knows what he is doing, his previous actions prove that he is smart/foxy, dirty (perhaps not physically) at his times, and a quite daring politician with a very long experience as a statesman and military commander as well. The only big problem is that no one will vote for him because he is the most powerful man in the country ..... we have a tendency to hate the strongest among us (although in his case he has done some nasty things... elections 2003)! Also, I don't know if he has a vision for all the armenians, if he has the cultural and intellectual opening required from a president. If it's not Serge, then I would vote for Raffi Hovanissian. What do you mean he is disconnected from Armenia and does not relate to its problems? These are some of my thoughts A.

Hi everyone I badly need the partitions for piano for the classic Erevan-Erebuni song. For both hands! where could I get them (on the net or elsewhere...)? waiting for your answer ps: ichecked cilicia.am, there isn't!

I was talking with a friend a while ago about what type of model is most appropriate for the armenian nation. Having a country (i.e RoA) is essential, it is actually a very big thing, a sort of basic starting point that we are very lucky to have (some people take it for granted!). But the story is not as simple as it seems: bringing all armenians in the homeland and living there happily, in the "land of armenians" is not realistic in my opinion. The diaspora will exist for a very long time, always fueled with new migrants.... this is not an armenian phenomenon, the entire world has become like that, find a US city that does not have an italian. pakistani, indian, chinese, greek, or mexican community, you can't! The difference should be in the type of diaspora we want to build. I just read an article from the armenia2020 website on armenia-diaspora interactions and perspectives. Very intelligent and accurate study, you should definitely read it, it will clarify many things (it's only 35 pages, you'll go over it in one or 2 hours). They present a scenario entitled "organized decentralization" which, in my view, seems to be the optimal outcome: Different communities in the world, fairly well organized, with a sense of belonging to the community but strongly related to armenia through contacts (friends, visits, work terms, studying at armenian universities, etc). This way, when armenians in the world move around, whether from armenia, or from community to community, they will always find an extension of Armenia, a school to send their children to, a church, a community center, friends, contacts, help, advice, etc. This is actually very probable. how many of you on this forum are students who don't know exactly where they will be working after graduation, it's probably going to be in big cities of the world, where industries are.... and we'll have a community in each one of them! This will be a globalized sort of nation, with a base, Armenia, that fuels the peripherals and is in turn helped by the latter. The fact that diaspora armenians will be moving around very often, and that only a small percentage of them will settle in Armenia (in the best case scenario) is undeniable. Even armenians from Armenia will want to go abroad, work, gain experience, make money, perhaps come back, and this is not only related to the economic situation. There are tens of thousands of french who immigrate to canada every year, yet France is a G7 country. It's just the way the world has become and in order to survive this, we basically need to amend some organizational aspects of our communities. Note that a lot has already been done, communities, churches and schools exist, this new task is not to be seen as a "mission impossible". President Kocharian said it during a meeting with diaspora organizations 6-7 years ago, something like: "The diaspora with its institutions, traditions and organizations is an asset for Armenia and the armenians, if these structures did not exist, it would have been necessary to create them at the cost of hundreds of millions of dollars which Armenia does not have." Just read that study about armenia and diaspora and let me know what you think!The topic was about armenian leaders, no? how did we get all the way here? Later boys and girls A.

If I offended anyone, sorry...didn't mean to!

First and foremost, for the "nice" people out there who think that corruption will disappear one day from Armenia, that everyone will understand that he/she has to behave ...... well you should better examine the mentality of people in those regions. Italy is a developed country of the G7, yet corruption does clearly exist there and in all countries surrounding the mediterranean sea as a matter of fact. The aim of the government is simply to reduce corruption just below the level at which it is no longer a threat to national security. That's it. There is no talk of profound change and transformation of social values and traditions of the caucasus, mediterranean, and middle eastern nations. And most probably it will remain like this for a while. This also brings in the point that the leaders of Armenia are not the sole responsible individuals for this process..... everything depends on the entire nation. 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.

Armenian leaders are not idiots, and Kocharian is fairly intelligent in my view! Let's have some respect among and between us and not insult our leaders! A.

I understand what you mean. By the way, I don't doubt that people are dedicated to the nation and I definitely didn't imply that people on this forum are not doing anything for it. It's just that I don't know where this is headed, what is the big picture? Sending money to armenia until a wester type leader emerges is in the minds of all of us ..... basically because of poor leadership in Armenia! What if that leader never emerges? Monte didn't wait for a leader to emerge! Maybe it should emerge from the diaspora? maybe one of us (generally speaking) could do that job someday! I don't want to criticize anyone, and I'm as confused as others on this issue! they're just questions that I'm asking myself! thanks for the reply R.

I just finished the book "my brother's road". Very inspiring and also emotional at the end. Monte's mother saying after his death "what a waist, what a great man he could have been had he continued his studies as an archeologist" and seeing later on the 100 000 mourners in Erevan, she had changed her mind and rightly refered to her son as a "national hero". This reaction is understandable, all moms want their kids to have a quiet and comfortable life! I did, and still am doing, a lot of personal thinking about the book and Monte's life. It is as if it got me questioning on many things about myself and people surrounding me (including hyeforum members). I mean people on this forum have so much interest in Armenia and armenians in general (at least the ones writing in the political, artsakh and other related topics), I'm sure these people (you guys and girls) also follow the news from Armenia almost daily just like me, that we all feel like doing things for our nation and that our intentions are very good and sincere ....... but we don't know what to do to contribute efficiently (I'm included in all this)! Moreover, we'll have to figure that out soon in order to make the distinction between real commitment and part time hobbie or interest, and live our lives consequently! Monte did this, and lived it the way he saw it! Can you imagine being in front of internet screens 30-40 years from now, having done nothing for the armenians (diaspora or homeland) and just taking the news and making comments on the forum passively. Travelling to armenia once in a while, eating khorovats, watching ararat, etc. It would be frustrating, not having done anything concrete for something that you have a huge interest for, it's like killing a part of you in order to be "reasonable" and "normal". I'm not talking about doing what Monte did, thank god we have a country, and a million different ways to contribute to it, and I'm still not mentioning all that can be done in the diaspora! This guy (monte) had guts and brains ..... to the point he might have been considered crazy, and I think he is extremely, unimaginably lucky to have reached the age of 35 with the kind of life he lived. The fact that he entered the books of Armenian history as a legend is indisputable. To me he is in the same league as Vartan mamigonian, Tavit peg, Antranig, and Vazgen Sarkisian (maybe more, call me an idealist, i don't care). Quoting a yerevantsi: "the best god we ever had" is enough to understand what he meant to them. My family in yerevan who are not particularly nationalist or expressive when it comes to armenian leaders (military or political), told me they and their entire building was crying when news came of Monte's death! In sum, the book allowed some decent soul searching in my case. I definitely recommend it to anyone, I hope it's doing good on the sales scene. I shall write later and would really appreciate your thoughts on all of this! A.

I probably know what most of you know! anyways, I'll get back to this topic after finishing the book A.

I just got the book on Monte's life, written by his brother and entitled "my brother's road". I will read it shortly. It looks like an easy to read "biography/adventure/late 20th century history" book. has anyone read it? if yes, your opinion? A.

Of course you can buy a house in Shoushi, and it is probably extremely cheap because the city is fully destroyed! A.

Shoushi is in karabagh, the most endangered part of our homeland. It is also a symbol for the unity of armenians..... plus the location of the town makes it specially beautiful and historic! Then again, I said in my message "any other city" would do the job as well! A.

Repatriation is a good point According to Armen Ayvazian (an analyst, expert), if diaspora armenians move to armenia for retirement it will already be a considerable boost for the economy. Moreover, repatriation should be done community by community. The cultural differences between diasporans and natives are significant enough to create integration problems (even if we don't talk about it out loud in order to promote unity!), and this has happened in the 40s, by the way! so a best case scenario would be for example, 10-20 thousand armenians from outside repopulating Shoushi (or another city), and making thus a first experiment. If shoushi succeeds, becomes a vibrant city, with thousands of diasporans having some family there, visiting every year, in other words if the city becomes a sort of base of the diaspora in Armenia, then it will be possible to extend this recipe to other zones. It's just an idea! (and it needs a lot of funding) A.

from http://www.armenianhistory.info/artsakh3.htm Half of Artsax under Azeri occupation. As the danger of further Azeri advances persisted, the NKR Parliament declared a state of emergency. The situation worsened to impending disaster when the Armenian defenders retreated from Mardakert and Aterk, on July 5, 1992. The whole Mardakert region was embroiled in combats. At the same time, the Azeri troops tried to break through the Armenian positions in Askeran, Martouni and Hadrout regions. On August 12, as half of the NKR territory fell under the Azeri occupation, the NKR Parliament decreed marshal law and the mobilization of 18-45 year-olds. On August 15, the State Defense Committee of the NKR was formed, and Robert Kocharyan became its Chairman with emergency powers. Armenians withstand Azeri attacks. The summer of 1992 was crucial. Despite great losses, the Armenians were able to withstand furious attacks on all front lines. Azeri military widely used bomber forces, in which Russian and Ukrainian mercenary pilots played the major role. Dropping forbidden cluster bombs on the Armenian villages became a common practice. In the fall of 1992, the Azeri troops tried to regain control over Lachin, but were definitively hurled back. Following the Armenian counterattack, the military operations moved to the Kubatli region of Azerbaijan. However, most of the Mardakert region was still under the Azeri control. I'll try to find to quote, I've read it for sure, but I don't remember where it was exactly R.

hope you still are in discussion with that guy The date argument won't work, the barbarians invaded rome on a period of many years, from different places and without a single invasion date. he can say that in order not to make it look like an invasion armenians used the karabaghis as a pretext, and by helping them militarily they got involved in the war and ended up occupying part of azerbaijan and still blame it on karabagh in order to stay clean! What you should say first is that the nature of the conflict was initially a purely administrative one, the first time karabagh forces got out of karabagh proper was in may 1992, 4 years after the beginning of the karabagh question. That his theory about armenians just attacking Azerbaijan on a sunday afternoon to steel land is not true! Before may 1992 karabagh was still enclaved and bombed from Shoushi (it was also bombed from Shoushi before the khojali events .... in case he brings that up!). You can also mention that in the summer of 1992, when only the Lachin corridor was occupied by karabagh as the only link to the outside world, 48% (more than their fake 20) of karabagh was occupied by the azeris, that the azeri military was only 17 km from stepanakert, and that international observers predicted that "armenians are brave and will fight to the end, but that the fall of stepanakert, and thus karabagh, was imminent and very probable in a matter of weeks if not days". What i mean to say is that the real invasion of azeri territories (by karabagh and of course with strong help from Armenia, since armenians could not watch their brothers get massacred .... specially after 1915) began only after things got to the "kill or be killed" point for karabaghtsis. If it wasn't for the invasion, no ceasefire would have ever been signed, there would be no negotiations because a balance of power would have never been reached. Have you seen the movie "Braveheart"? After William Wallace (mel gibson) beats the english a first time he decides to invade "York", an english city close to the border of scotland and succeeds in doing so! After that, the English king sends negotiators, only because a balance of power is reached! Had Wallace not done that, the english would have kept coming over and over until outnumbering the scots! Wallace lost later due to other circumstances..... and hopefully it won't be the case with karabagh. But the analogy is real: the Karabagh war was really a liberation war..... I strongly regret the refugies and hope for their return, but only if karabagh gets, officially and once and for all, rid of azeri rule! A.

Part 2: The concessions Armenia might have to make? Well there was an article written in december by 2 senior european diplomats (one former NATO secretary general and a former spanish foreign minister if i'm not mistaken). In there it said that the status of Karabagh should be decided by another referendum in about 10 years from now, but until then, Armenia should return the occupied regions and as a security guarantee, the transitional control of Karabagh should go to Armenia! Fair enough no? if we exclude Lachin and possibly Kelbajar from the list of returnable territories for those 10 years and that security is guaranteed by international organizations as well as our army on the ground . This is the limit beyond which it is impossible to reconcile both sides! Armenia asks for the three known principles to be respected: horizontal links between stepanakert and Baku, a land link with Armenia, strong security guarantees. Armenia gets the last 2 ones now, and leaves the door open for the first one, with strong chances (if karabagh develops well during those 10 years) of getting it later through an internationally accepted referendum! As for Azerbaijan, it wants a step by step deal? he gets it. It wants return of territories and refugies? he gets it! It needs to show or act as if having a tough stance on Armenia for the sake of its own internal stability and the security of the Aliev clan? he gets it, because it can now sign a deal where he gets most of what he lost in 1994... without blood! It needs to maintain stability for his oil issues? again, he has it! It needs another 10 years to swallow its defeat, to "come out with a white face", not humiliated? This is his chance! The only thing he is quite sure of losing, is Karabagh itself (and possibly lachin and/or kelbajar)! But hey, you can't prepare omelette without breaking eggs, can you? This is the sensitive part, if Azeri leaders do not prepare themselves to the fact that Karabagh is not and will not be theirs, then the only way is the rule of force. And I think, that the azeri stance is still the classical "EVERYTHING BACK, I don't care what Armenia thinks"! Well, this is not the most constructive approach and chances that it works are a bit low (I pray so!). The problem is the following: If the prague talks (current negotiations) fail, then it will be cristal clear that negotiations are really useless since both sides are asking for contradictory things and because this deal had the biggest chances of satisfying all sides! In that case, the Aliyev regime will have to throw a new war sooner or later, at least to keep the power. They have been talking about it for a decade and prepared their population for it psychologically, so they can't back off now without losing their leaders. Even if they risk loosing the war, or changing nothing on the frontline, they will have to make a move, it's like a "check mate"...... for both sides! That's my fear; if these talks fail, then things will serioulsy start warming up for the worse! And I think the blame will be on azerbaijan, because of its "everything back to the way it was in 1988" position! Let's hope the talks don't fail! A.

I read an interview of Vahan Hovanissian on the Yerkir webpage, and he got heavily criticized and even insulted for willing to make concessions to Azerbaijan. On the other hand, others insulted him for not having pushed for concessions until now, and clearly demanded return of territories and a quick peace deal. "The government doesn't think about our national interests, they are selling the land, they stole everything and they are doing the same with karabagh" from one side and "the government is too nationalistic, too conceited, ARF and kocharian don't care about our youth who will have to fight another war if we don't compromise. Compromise, and compromise fast before it is too late" from the other side! I wouldn't want to be in kocharian's shoes if you see what I mean! One thing we learned since 1988; if we stand united, nobody can beat us! Its the only truth that can be said about the republic of Armenia of the past 15 years. So, you may like kocharian or not, like sargissian or not, detest the ARF or not, loath the coalition or not, the primary rule not to break is unity. Let's have some confidence on our leaders (and even I am surprised that such a sequence of letters are being typed by my fingers...... I might eventually take back that last part about confidence!) Do you think Veterans like kocharian, sargissian, etc would really sell karabagh for a certain amount of money? for a mansion on some island? for more power? a bulletproof mercedes? a sleek race car? These guys lost members of their family and childhood friends in the war....... they also did big mistakes later on, when tasting power and luxury, of course! But let's not fall in the "people always remember the last thing you did" trap, and forget that Kocharian kept his family under the bombs in Stepanakert during the toughest times ...... while some of his present day critics were in Moscow or elsewhere! If any armenian leader has the legitimacy of speaking of a deal on karabagh, then it is those who actively took leading roles in the war! If they judge concessions are the right way, then so be it! By the way, why is everyone surprised at hearing the word "concession" from Kocharian, maybe you should read his inaugural interview back in 1998 to understand that he always wanted a compromised deal with Azerbaijan. I'm no big fan of kocharian and I have expressed myself quite brutally on this forum about armenian leaders only a few days ago! But if Azerbaijan says: "Well my armenian budy, we fought, went through tough times, we both have refugies and you won the war. Guess what? I don't give a damn that artsakh is important for you, that security is important for you, that you won on the battlefield, that artsakh has always been armenian, that there are hundreds of chuches there with armenian letters on their walls, that you fear going through another genocide if you hand over artsakh, that you are having debates in your political circles, that some of you want to stop this, that some don't, that your economy is suffering, that you are under siege with 85% of your borders closed, that you have massive emigration problems, that you can't lose artsakh by fear of turning the last page of your history, etc. I honestly don't care about your problems cause these are YOUR problems, all I want, and be sure that I will get it sonner or later, is my flag in khankendi, and your karabagh people subordinated to Baku. You can do it the easy way by returning EVERYTHING, or we can also do it the hard way, i.e I burn Armenia from A to Z, and god knows I have enough gasoline for it!" If this is Azerbaijan's stance (and officially it is not far from this, ex: their vice defense minister declares that there will be no Armenia in 25 years), then we better stand tightly united. Very tightly! let's pray a lot! and trust Kocharian..... more than Aliyev! Will continue later on! A.

Revolution won't do it and i can't believe people are naive enough to think it will change things. The problem is not sarkissian or kocharian whom i'm sure are not very clean ..... and neither will their eventual replacements be! The problem is the local commanders and bureaucrats who became something in life, and they now think they can do whatever they want! Its the entire chain. The problem is in the heart of the armenian nation, generalized, like a cancer, eating the whole population, and us seing only the tip of the iceberg through the politicians (opposition included). Those "aper problem chga, hayreniki hamar mi kani dgha el chzohenk, ara?", "dard mi ara, oghit kashi u fsio!" assholes who form a spiderweb of dirty connections, money envelopes, bribes, and finish their sentences with mobster movie type, sleek, cheesy expressions to give themselves some importance! That's the problem! if all we had to do was to change pres. prime minister. defence minister, etc, it wouldn't be hard ...... but changing thousands of people, practically the entire country, is impossible in short delays. You need change of generations and decades, mentalities .......... which might be rotten, intrinsically, beyond the point of no-return, hopelessly! Maybe it is a battle not even worth fighting, worth forgetting and never thinking about, never having any link to it in order not to have outbursts like the one i'm having! A.

Ok, that's it The last article on the murder of a soldier, Hayk Sargsyan, disgusts me unimaginably. To the point that if a vaccine existed with which i could change my nationality and my blood, I wouldn't hesitate a second. Our best guys, the motivated and patriotic ones go to serve voluntarily .... they get killed by their own, and the crime is covered by a dirty, corrupt bureaucratic group of "oghi drinking" and "khorovats" eating, "lopaz", fat and "big belly" rats, who think they can do anything just because they participated to the war. Damn it, we should have a squad that would go put bullets in the heads of the supervising commanders..... a little brutal, but certainly the only way in a country where the words "law" and "justice" are entering museums as "ancient litterature" or "ancient concept" vocabulary. I don't care if you don't like my message, i had to get it out! And usually i am very calm! Here is the article, read it... its the least you can do, no? A. Death of a Patriot: Yet another suspicious army death By Zhanna Alexanyan ArmeniaNow Reporter On March 17 the Sargsyan family of Avan village was called to Ashtarak Military Commission Headquarters and told that their son, junior commander Hayk Sargsyan had been killed by border fighting. “Mother’s love will never die”, wrote Haik in a poem to his mother However on the day of their son’s funeral Lieutenant Colonel Edik Melkumyan told Hayk’s father Ishkhan Sargsyan that his son “was killed by a scum”, meaning someone from within his unit. The father says he asked Melkumyan if his son was killed by Azeri gunfire and was told no. He then asked if Hayk had committed suicide. Again he was told no. A few days after the funeral the Military Prosecutor’s Office of Gugark said Hayk committed suicide. That was the reason why Hayk’s relatives “forgot the mourning” and tried to meet journalists “to save our son’s reputation”. “I wish they didn’t ascribe this suicide to my child. My Hayk did not deserve it. Thousands like him do not deserve it,” says his mother Nino Sargsyan, 45. "Whomever they speak about, they say he has hanged himself, he has killed himself, what kind of army is this? He loved his family so much; he wouldn’t ever commit suicide.” Hayk Sargsyan, 22, was born in the village of Avan in Ashtarak region. He graduated with excellence form his village secondary school and entered the Department of Architecture at Yerevan State University for Architecture and Construction. He was conscripted on June 21 2004, immediately after graduating from the university. On the day of the conscription Hayk called in to the “Zinuzh” (Military Force) television program and spoke about Armenian men taking part in the cause of defending the Homeland, saying military service is a must to become a man. “I buried him not as an uncle but as a commander telling others not to cry, we should hand him over to the earth with glory,” says Sargis Sargsyan, his uncle. After six months in the Armavir military training unit, Hayk was moved on November 9 to the town of Berd, in the Shamshadin region. In Armavir he was known as an honest and disciplined soldier, was honored with a certificate of appreciation and undertook the responsibilities of junior commander before moving to Shamshadin. He has never complained of the military service, but wrote in his last letter: “Having seen the service in Armavir I can’t get used to this place. There was a haven, here there are service regulations, law and order, but you can’t understand who wants what, who demands what.” The Sargsyan family are of Western Armenian descent from the city of Sasun and says the people of Sasun raise their children to be patriotic. “He wanted to continue his education but we said: ‘Boy, who is going to defend the homeland?’ I was proud my son served for the homeland,” says the father. “My boy was proud he had Sasun heritage, was proud he served the homeland.” Sargis Sargsyan, 45, is a former military man with higher education and, like his brothers, is a veteran of the Artsax war. He has held various military positions including that of the Division Commander. “We entered the battlefield with 120 soldiers and went out without any loss,” says Sargis. “I don’t understand when soldiers are killed in peacetime, when they say there is someone who supervises the unit.” The reason for death of soldiers in peaceful times, according to Sargis, is uneducated officers. The family does not believe that the son committed suicide “We didn’t send our boy to army to commit suicide. He could have committed suicide here as well. We sent him to defend the homeland,” says Nino, the mother, whom Hayk calls by name in his letters: “…when at night I put my head on the pillow I remember you I think a bit and then sleep. Nino jan, I devote these verses to you: Mother’s love will never die, Even if it is one hundred years, It will do everything for the son So that the son has no bad days in his life. The mother is joyous when the son is joyous, The mother is sad when the son is sad, The mother is happy just like her son is, The mother is a traveler, when her son is, Each minute, each second, The mother’s soul watches, Whether at home or not, Everywhere the mother watches. Nino and Ishkhan Sargsyan's elder son Hakob served in the Kelbajar unit in 2000-2002. Nine days after conscription he was beaten so heavily that he had to spend 4 months in hospital. The consequences of the beating are still felt. “Hakob was brought home half alive. They had beaten him badly. Till today my child is in poor health. He served, suffering, and came back,” says the mother. “How could they take the second and not bring him back? How could they bring my young boy and put him before me this way?” Artak Harutyunyan, head of the Investigative Department at the Military Prosecutor’s Office told ArmeniaNow a criminal case had been opened in the Gugark Military Prosecutor’s Office for murder with aggravating circumstances, prior to the parents being told the death was suicide. The case is now being heard by the Military Prosecutor of the Republic of Armenia, based on the parents' appeal to the regional office.

Hi Harut I could answer most of your questions since I just finished a book from a political scientist named Samuel Huntington; "The clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order", but I'm in a rush and I advice you to have a look at the book. It has a chapter devoted exactly to the issue that interrests you, he makes a clear distinction between westernization and modernization, analyses countries that have tried one or the other or even both, ex: Turkey tried westernization in the 20s cutting all links with its islamic past, the ottoman empire and adopting new values (at least in form), the asian nations are more inclined towards modernization since they are very wary of preserving their traditions and culture, etc. The book was a bestseller (in 97 I think) you should therefore have no trouble finding it in any library. If your assignment is due soon, you shouldn't worry the chapter isn't long and fun to read. have a good day A.