I have just returned from a three-week visit to Armenia. The visit was intended to be totally devoted to the political and social analysis of the nation. I have been asking visitors upon their return from Armenia what their impressions and observations of progress were. The general response has been: “many changes relative to previous visits.” I also returned noticing changes from a 1997 visit.

There was great activity pertaining to infrastructure such as roads, walks, building renovations, etc. Thanks to Kirk Kerkorian for upgrading the roads and underground pipes. May God bless him. Also, many elegant high-end restaurants were built, some having one on each three floors of a beautifully renovated building. It is possible to purchase anything from small personal stores or larger and upscale stores selling the world’s goods.

But there still exists begging on the streets. We constantly experienced requests for funds while walking. One evening a lady rang our apartment doorbell begging for money to feed her children. We visited a family living beyond the center of Yerevan on Taparashrgiknery Street. They migrated from Gumri where the earthquake struck and destroyed their home. The only housing they were able to afford was a ground floor, two room space for their family of five. Their bathroom was an outhouse without a tub or shower. The land that their home was built on in Gumri now has new homes constructed upon it. Gumri’s local government refused to pay for their land regardless of their pleas. In other words, their property was stolen from them.

During a drive, we passed through an area of newly constructed homes that would compete with homes over the one million dollar class in the United States. In essence, there virtually does not exist a middle class, which is always the backbone of any nation’s strength. The official poverty rate for Armenia at this time is 45 percent.

There is a great increase in chaotic, wild, and lawless traffic. The pedestrian has no rights to safety. I personally experienced an incident in which our taxi was stopped in the left lane of three lanes in heavy traffic. A most sweet girl was trying to cross in front of our stopped taxi and the lane next to us. While crossing the last empty lane nearest the curb, a vehicle traveling at great speed suddenly reached the girl. While braking hard, he still struck her. She managed to get up and onto the walk screaming with a broken arm hanging from her elbow. The driver hurriedly placed her in his vehicle and rushed off to a hospital.

There are virtually no laws for driving. The only laws that were visible were policemen next to their parked vehicles checking approaching drivers that changed lanes. They would flag down the driver and collect a fine on the spot. Innumerable small worn out taxis would drive at high speeds between other vehicles at breathtaking closeness from side to side and front to back. Your heart would be in your throat for the whole trip.

Changes were noticeable in television broadcasting. There are 29 channels to view. Nineteen of the 29 channels contain sexuality and violence in their programming. Two channels were licensed to America’s biased CNN showing the very same program. If you cancel these two channels, it would be 19 of 27. Approximately a year ago the Armenian government pulled the license of a quality independent Armenian channel, A1+, and gave the license to Sharm channel 17, Art 3, which broadcasts programming that has valueless subject matter, devoid of substance. Not one channel was devoted to classical music that Armenia has in abundance. That act of censorship by the government was the restriction of free speech of a supposed free nation. When governments encourage free speech, nations will blossom and flourish. When governments squelch free speech, there is tyranny. When governments ignore the existence of imported immorality into its society, that government itself becomes tainted with immorality.

While viewing television one evening, I saw mothers and fathers begging the government to not close their local school so that their children would not have to travel to a distant school. Little did those poor souls know that one of the major demands of the world banks for lending money is to reduce the number of schools and then revise the curriculum in those schools that remain. That curriculum will be devoid of teaching patriotism to the students. They will be indoctrinated into children of the world. Their target is patriotism, because they know that it is not possible to contaminate a nation that is patriotic. While the government is allowing the closing of schools, they are allowing the adoption of orphans and children of families who cannot feed their children to non-Armenians from all over the world. They are also ignoring the trafficking of girls and boys. This is by no means defending the nation. There is no effort to protect the girls that respond to promises for jobs in other nations including Turkey and then end up in the captivity of immorality.

Throughout Yerevan small groups of idle men were noticed on the streets, but on major corners such as Tigran Metz and Hanrapetutiun Street hundreds of men were loitering waiting for someone to pick them for employment. I heard time after time, “we were better off under Communism.” That does not say much for freedom. Whatever advancement of the economy that exists is not attributable to the government but rather the ingenuity and desire for survival of the populace. Governments don’t create wealth, people do. Instead of sending Armenia’s youth to schools that indoctrinate them into the economics of one world citizenship, they should send them to the Von Mises School of Austrian Economics being taught at Auburn University in the state of Alabama in the U.S.A. Armenia’s youth are being sent to the Fletcher School of Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts that brainwashes the acceptance of globalization (one world government) instead of nationhood. Effort should be expended in developing a diplomatic school at Yerevan State University where they will be taught world diplomacy, which would include the national Armenian ideologies and philosophies of General Karekin Nejdeh who secured Zangezour (present southern part of Hayastan) in 1920. Also, members of the government should know about Adam

Smith, who was a Scottish political economist and philosopher in 1776 and whose principles were used by America’s founding fathers to establish the foundation of the American republic. It would behoove Armenia’s political parties to study Adam Smith’s influential book, “The Wealth of Nations.”

There are those that are clamoring to open the border with Turkey in order to improve Armenia’s economy. Naively, little do they know that what economy exists in Armenia today would be deluged and dissipated into a huge Turkish economy. It would be an invitation to a terminal dependency on Turkey. It is sad that centuries of deceptive insatiable appetite of hatred by the Turk and their perennial accomplices against the Armenian has still not been identified and penetrated into the Armenian mentality.

I have stated many times that the most important step the government can take for the future economic stability of Hayastan would be to immediately repurchase the gold mines that were sold to outside entities. A ten-year payback should be negotiated with the present owners. After that, any and all gold mined shall be kept in newly built underground vaults defended by the army. In case of an economic emergency, the Armenian dram would then be backed by a percentage of gold.

I had an appointment with Prime Minister Antranig Markaryan at 3:00 p.m. Arriving on time, I had to wait an hour and a half with his secretary. Finally, three women emerged from his office. I was told they were championing human rights. That was an excellent example of the internationalists’ demands for women’s rights having permeated into Armenia via the United Nations. It must be noticed that what they never talk about is human responsibilities. The United Nations development program employs 100 people in Armenia, which is funded by United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA). One of their programs is to make women aware of abortion for regulating the size of the family under the guise of “education”.

I also had a lengthy conversation with an active member of the parliament Mr. Serj Mugerdichyan representing an area in Zangezour, who visited me at our apartment. He was filled with genuine patriotism. Unfortunately, the majority of the 131 parliamentarians are fearful for their personal security, which affects their voting for the good of the nation. I also spoke for over an hour with Karabagh’s Archbishop Barkev Mardirosian who happened to be in Yerevan. He was a most impressive individual. It is common knowledge that Serj Sarkisian the Defense Minister had gone to Monte Carlo on June 17 and lost huge amounts of money gambling. Armenia’s chairman of Customs, Armen Avetisian (who drives a $100,000 BMW), was authorized to send him government funds to bail him out. Now he is still visiting Belarus and the Ukraine with military officials discussing defense matters. What the government should have done was to leave him in Monte Carlo and appoint a patriotic, serious, battle hardened tactician for the post.

The Armenian Government thinks that by joining the European Union, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization, etc., Armenia will be accepted as a friend. On the contrary, what it does is allows these created world organizations to interfere into your internal affairs. They then tell you how you must govern your country, which is just what is happening. Armenia has become the testing grounds for all types of internationalist policies. Policies that other nations have rejected. The Armenian Government of today has not learned from history. There are forces that have already decided to eliminate Armenia as a state. Their tentacles have already penetrated into the nation with their bribery loans and the contamination of its culture. Armenia’s foreign ministry is naively playing into the hands of these forces thinking that if we speak sweet words we will be accepted. The reality is just the opposite. When you stand up protecting your nation, you are more respected regardless of how small your nation. When you kiss their boots, they have nothing but contempt towards you.

A news item from ArmenPress, October 23, 2003, stated: “A team of senior officials of the World Bank have arrived in Armenia to discuss with the government the Bank’s next four-year long strategic program to assist Armenia to continue the process of reforming.” The key is the word reforming (which means conditions). The Armenian parliament speaker Arthur Baghdasarian stressed the WB support to Armenia had singled out education and health sectors as targets of the continued reform. He should know that the World Bank is designed to control and dismantle nations.

An excellent example of defending the independence of a nation’s future destiny can be found in the country of Belarus. Elected president of Belarus, the former Soviet republic, in July 1994, Alexander Lukashenka has become a powerful beacon for anti-globalist fighters for almost 10 years. He is known for his expulsion of all World Bank and IMF representatives from his country. In 1995, Lukashenka began a privatization program, but, when it became clear that well-connected oligarchs were to take the lion’s share, plunging the country into poverty, the president recanted and placed much of the economy under state control. The result of his policies was a substantial rise in Gross Domestic Product (GDP). According to the UN, Belarus has the strongest national economy among the former Soviet republics. Unemployment is about 2.5 percent. Since the IMF was kicked out, GDP growth in Belarus has been on average between 6 percent and 4 percent annually. Wages have consistently risen, as has the basic economic standard of living.

Note the difference: defending his nation by the president of Belarus; and because of greed, Armenia’s leaders allowing the international bankers to dismantle Hayastan.

The opposition to Lukashenka has been small. Recently, before an anti-presidential demonstration in Minsk, opposition leaders predicted a “massive turnout of 20,000.” However, estimates of 1,000 actually showed up, waving anti-Lukashenka placards, conveniently, in English. The Soros Foundation, as well as the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy, are almost completely funding the “opposition.” On Sept. 9, 2001, 75 percent of Belarussian voters sent Lukashenka back to the presidential chair for another term. (The American Free Press, October 13, 2003.)

A Groonk news item by the newspaper “Ayots Ashkar” dated Tuesday, October 14, 2003, had the title: “Russia, USA Want No Strong Leaders in Armenia, Azerbaijan.” The reason for this is that they are able to control weak leaders. When the time comes for a Karabagh forced agreement Kocharian will say, “There was nothing I could do. The big powers forced the agreement onto me.”

Armenia’s government at this time is governing only for today and not the future. It is similar to the saying of the monkeys “who could not see, could not hear, and could not speak.” Armenia today has many enemies internally as well as externally, but fortunately there exist patriotic movements that are very alert to those dangers. They should know, because many of them fought on the front lines of the Karabagh war where 10,000 of their comrades gave their lives to protect the Armenian people. They are fully aware of the existence of dark forces threatening Armenia through the ages as well as today. Unfortunately, they are not able to get their message out because of a lack of funds. They deserve to be heard. Armenian wealth worldwide should refrain from building churches and museums, until that wealth first supports the genuine patriotic movements and the upgrading of the armed forces. After the nation has established its security in all aspects, then there will be time to add churches to the many churches that already exist.

The Diaspora should know that if what is left of Hayastan as a nation is lost, nothing but nothing will have value. Oh! Lord, please fill our leaders (of the oldest nation in Christendom) with patriotism, wisdom, and integrity, so that it may take its righteous place among the world’s nations with dignity and respect.

Ardavast Avakian
Livonia, MI USA
October 27, 2003