This afternoon Raffi was visited by deputies from the National Assembly, approaching him in party contingents. Toward the end of the day the president of the assembly himself, Hovik Abrahamian (aka, moog, or "mouse") arrived on the scene, to try and convince him to stop his protest, but he refused to stop, which was not unexpected. Apparently, the vanity of mocking and ridicule displayed by Abrahamian's fellow party members is expired.

There was more discussion in public before journalists as always about when the hunger strike would end. He again was making the point that it is up to the people to decide, not him.

RFE/RL quoted Raffi stating the following: "My demand is the people’s demand and I’m too little to put up a banner and say, ‘This is what I demand.’ The demand has already been registered and I join that demand." I think that pretty much sums it up.

When I went to visit him a few hours ago I was glad to see that the tent was still there, and I learned he slept comfortably in it during the night. Two evenings prior he was photographed lying on his bench with a tarp pulled over him to keep him dry under the downpour--it was printed on the first page of Aravot newspaper. Seems some embarrassing letters sent to the president from various ambassadors made a difference. He also has a small electric heater near his legs to keep him warm, which is definitely needed now that the temperature's dipping once again.

Raffi told me again this evening that he finds his Fast for Freedom empowering. He estimated that a minimum of 2,500 people enter Liberty Square a day, basing that figure on the number of newspapers his party publishes are being distributed by volunteers. The nutritional value delivered by a constant stream of personal support is evidently more satisfying than any hearty meal could ever provide. He shows no signs of wearing down. Extraordinary.

Labels: Politics, Thoughts and Musings

Raffi Hovannisian flanked by supporters, photo by Karen Minasyan

Today marks the tenth day since Raffi Hovannisian started his Fast for Freedom. In place of food, he is essentially being nourished by the positive energy everyone who visits him 15 hours a day gives.  Today he admitted to me that his strike has taken on spiritual significance as well, and for him it is also a test of his own faith. He seems so peaceful, stress free.

Just after I arrived a priest came, with a wiry black beard and slight build.  He began to recite the Lord's Prayer and others hovering nearby joined in, then he sang some hymns. Someone else was videotaping it all with an amateur camera. Others just stood by and started, some in awe, others not necessarily knowing what to think.

Yesterday in the news there were reports of statements made by Levon Ter-Petrossian about Raffi's character, defending his decision to snub Raffi last week when he and his entourage entered Liberty Square. Ter-Petrossian made an absurd comparison between Raffi and Satan, which just shows where his head is at. I really can't believe some people in this country want him to be elected president again. I also heard that some members of parliament representing the Republican party had sausages, cheese and bread delivered to Raffi yesterday. It is a disgusting thing to hear, but rather unsurprising since it's clear they have no conception of what personal sacrifice means and certainly not pride. Of all the people in government I have read that only the Minster of Justice went to visit him.

In the afternoon some representatives from local NGOs pitched a tent for him to sleep in nearby his bench. Several attempts to install a tent have failed with the police removing them each time. It's hard to believe that the red berets patrolling the area didn't notice it, so here's hoping they'll let it remain.

What inspires me most about this protest is the power of the will. You have to not only have faith in the cause that you are suffering for, you need to first of all possess faith in yourself, and that same faith has to emanate from you so that it permeates others that you are trying to reach with your message. Raffi's strike has taken on other meanings, it's significance is now much more than politically motivated. Now it's also a show of perseverance of the soul and mind. And based on what we're hearing from his critics, people are beginning to comprehend.

Labels: Politics, Social and Cultural, Thoughts and Musings

Raffi Hovannisian, March 17, Liberty Square. Photo by Karen Minasyan.

Raffi Hovannisian, the first foreign minister of the Republic of Armenia and the leader of the political party Heritage, was continuing his hunger strike in Liberty Square adjacent to the Opera House as of last night. His calls his protest the Fast for Freedom, and he is now into his eighth day on site, there around the clock drinking only spring water.

One of his main goals is to have snap elections called so that the people of Armenia can vote freely and fairly without falling victim to the temptation of selling their vote or the authorities to scheme how to falsify the elections. He as well as many others in opposition feel that the authorities essentially robbed the last presidential elections, and he is also irate about the recent signed memorandum between the leaders of the three coalition parties pledging support for President Serge Sarkisian's candidacy in the next presidential elections scheduled to be held in 2013.

Raffi is also out there to call attention to the socioeconomic issues and lack of effective civil action that plague Armenia today. I had the privilege of interviewing Raffi Hovannisian for the Armenian Weekly last Saturday and we spoke for about a half hour, occasionally interrupted by his supporters and friends stopping by to lend their support.

I always thought Raffi was a sensible, intelligent human being who is dedicated and principled, and is arguably the only honest politician in Armenia today. Having said that, I have privately criticized him in the past for not doing enough to activate the citizens of Armenia, unlike the first president of Armenia, who emerges from his cave of obscurity once a month or every two months, carrying on like he is the god of opposition but doesn't have much to say about real issues. Raffi has always immersed himself in society, so that he could fully understand the plight of most Armenian citizens who are destitute or else barely getting by. I don't know of any other politician who mentions specific details about what people have to deal with as he did in my interview. They all seem clueless, especially the bureaucrats and pro-government minsters and parliamentarians. President Sarkisian recently demonstrated how truly ignorant he is to the devastating plight of Armenian citizens who live in villages, as Edik Baghdasaryan explained in a recent Hetq Online article.

Yet I don't know if people are really getting Raffi's message. As he told me in our conversation a few days ago, he expects the youth to be more active in building society on all levels. But the youth--at least in my view--seems to be divided into three groups: one where kids are too busy being kids, another where young people are doing whatever it takes to prepare to leave the country, and a third that is active but is limited in their abilities to some extent due to a lack of resources, waning interest from peers, or pressure from the powers that be to limit the scope of their civil and political ambitions. I doubt whether Raffi would agree with my assessment off the record since he tends to look very favorably on the youth, and I only hope they start gravitating towards him as a result of their protest because they need each other to get democracy working in Armenia.

I am going to be perhaps too blunt in saying that Raffi has a lot of balls for what he is doing. No one in politics would ever do the same as has been proven up til now.

I will add a few more words later on...

Labels: Personal Experiences, Politics, Thoughts and Musings

A little while ago, just after 10:30 pm, I was walking home down Tumanyan Street from the supermarket. Just before I approached the Hanrabedutyan/Tumanyan intersection I ran across a young boy, who must have been 10 or 11 years old, asking me for money to get home. The first thing I asked him was why he wasn't home, and where he lived. He said that he was from "Sari Tagh" which is not so close to Yerevan's city center (kentron).  When I asked him what he was doing downtown, he shrugged his shoulders. I gave him whatever coins I had in my pocked, around 700 dram, he said thanks and went off. One hundred dram will buy him a ride home. I am guessing he may have gotten himself something to eat with the rest of the change.

I didn't know what to make of the situation. It seems strange that any normal family would let their boy walk around Yerevan late at night.  At the far end of Tumanyan Street where we met there's not much traffic at night, and only a few pedestrians walking about. Many of those who are out are taxis without fares or spoiled punks racing their Bentley coupes or Porche Cayennes down the street. Although the area is relatively safe, it's still not a place for a boy to be at that time of night.

The question is, why was he out? Was he begging for money? Was he lost coming from a friend's house, or was he abandoned by someone for some reason?

Eight years ago when I first made a move to Armenia I would never have seen a kid walking around downtown Yerevan alone at night. But now I'm seeing it more and more. For the last several years I keep bumping into kids his same age selling strange, paint-by-numbers watercolor paintings around the vicinity of the Opera House, who are saving up for a bicycle. After all this time they still have yet to manage to buy one. I hope I never see the guy putting those kids up to it.

So back to the boy. I didn't press him too hard to find out about his situation. He was barely audible when he asked me for change as I walked by, which meant he felt some sense of shame, and he seemed to have a lost expression on his face. It's troubling, I don't know what to think. I don't know what can be done to prevent kids from walking around late at night looking for handouts, or being pimped by some asshole who can't think of more creative ways of entrepreneurship.

What's the solution, how can we stop these innocents from being used or discarded? Who exactly is at fault, and how do we rectify the problem? I sit here on the couch typing away and can't think of one answer.

Labels: Personal Experiences, Social and Cultural, Thoughts and Musings

For the last couple of months we've been finding these bizarre-looking inquisitive bugs in our bathtub and bathroom sink in the mornings. They have a prehistoric look to them, like the kind of insects you would find in the stone fossils they hand out to students to examine in eighth grade.

I would see one of these gliding about every so often, but never on a daily basis. Cockroaches were always greater in number, but strangely enough I haven't seen one on weeks. These guys are obviously drawn to the bathroom fixtures because of their attraction to humidity and they can't resist a hot morning shower apparently because at least one appears near the drain of the tub waiting for me.

They seem to be coming from the upper floors as I saw a few of them crawl in a chain on the bathroom ceiling last week, making their slow migration to the tub. On two occasions entire families were running around--microscopic babies, teenagers, even the grandparents. Some of them were hiding under the bathtub mat.


It's hard to get them moving under a steady jet from the shower hand nozzle. Once they suspect they're about to be washed away they use their ten legs as suction cups, deftly and defiantly adhering to the porcelain at any angle. Sometimes it takes a minute or two to set them on a new course of uncharted aquatic depths.

If anyone happens to know how these critters are called, please tell us in the comments section.

Labels: Armenian bugs