BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
A crowd gathered outside the Los Angeles Consulate General of the Republic of Armenia to protest, once again, the murder of Vahe Avetyan and deliver a series of demands to the government of the Armenia.
One of the participants was Avetyan’s cousin. He made a heartfelt plea that the laws of the land be implemented and simple justice be served upon those who murdered his relative.
The approximately hour-long protest drew a photographer from the Glendale News Press and the Glendale police department.
Consulate staff allowed only one person to enter the building from among the demonstrators to deliver the demands, which are
1. An emergency session of the Armenia’s National Assembly be convened;
2. The Prosecutor General indict Rouben Hayrapetyan as a codefendant in the Avetyan murder case;
3. Hayrapetian be dismissed from the National Assembly for violating its rules prohibiting entrepreneurial activity by sitting Deputies.
4. An impartial investigation be conducted of Hayrapetyan’s offenses and Avetyan’s murder
5. Hayrapetian be dismissed from his post as President of the Football Federation of Armenia.
Future protests will be held at the same location on Sundays at 1:00 pm, with a special demonstration planned for Avetyan’s Forty Day memorial.
It is interesting that Armenian Americans did not find the time to demonstrate in front of the Azerbaijan’s Consulate in Los Angeles, when Azeris murdered 3 Armenian servicemen travelling in their private sedan, and killed 4 Armenian troops, who died fighting off Azeri invaders just last month.
Apparently in the view of some in Diaspora, Armenia’s oligarchs are more of threat to Armenia’s existence than Azerbaijan.
Actually in the view of many many people in the Diaspora, Armenia’s rotten ruling government, including the oligarchs are a very serious, short and long term threat to Armenia’s existence.
You don’t see the emigration of Armenians from Armenia as a problem? You don’t draw its roots to this corrupt government?
Let’s clean our kitchen and get rid of the oligarchs and ruling thugs who have robbed the fledgling republic from its potential and growth. No need to bring in a ‘nationalistic’ opportunity to protest against the Azeris…that’s a given and continues to happen thanks to our young Diaspora groups.
This mess is the exact reason why we need to concept of a dasnak republic of Armenia. That could be theoretically accomplished by Western Armenians getting together , raising funds and buying one of the larger Greek Islands. Greece is in a huge economic mess that it may take 50 years to recover from . The poor Greeks need cold hard cash.Many Greeks have been laid off from government jobs.They are very desparate to raise funds and buying an island to establish the Dashnak republic of Armenia could possibly work. Lets pray that the Hayastansis will resolve their problems but we can create a second Armenia to lead by example.
What kind of commander-in-chief is Serzh Sargsyan that he hasn’t publicly commented on this matter, especially that it involves a military doctor, an individual who has sworn his life to protect and serve his country. If Serzh Sargsyan, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the military, cared at all, he wouldn’t have allowed abuses and killings in the Armenian military. Not a single person has been prosecuted for lack of discipline.
Mr. President – have the audacity to speak about this tragic incident. Stop hiding in your presidential palace.
Avetyan’s death is unfortunate, but it’s obvious that the foreign powers are taking advantage of it to manipulate the masses for their own agenda.
There is a clear and present danger that unfortunate situations like what occurred in Harsnaqar may get hijacked by Western mercenaries and Western NGOs and used against the state. If that happens then all bets are off and I expect Armenian police to resort to aggressive tactics to disperse protesters in Armenia. As long as the protesters are not appealing to Western organization for any kind of help, they can be allowed to continue their protests and political activism.
At the end of the day, we must be mindful that Armenia has a lot of growing pains to go through. As with all nations, Armenia will have to travel a hard road to development. In the meanwhile, with Cuba, Venezuela, Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Iran in mind, we cannot allow Western imperial interests to meddle in Armenia’s internal affairs…
The adoption of capitalism in the republics of the former Soviet Union destroyed their economies and promoted the development of oligarchies. What we have in Armenia and many of the FSU countries are oligarchies. If Armenia had adopted a mixed economy system using elements of both socialism and capitalism such as in Finland, Sweden or Norway, the country would not be ruled by oligarchs. Pure capitalism is toxic and we have seen that even the United States is ruled by a Wall Street, oil industry and military-industrial complex oligarchies.