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1. Everyone should read this because Vardanyan lays out several systemic problems within Armenia’s criminal business environment, BUT, he avoids mentioning any credible solutions. Suggesting MORE diaspora investment into what he admits is a flawed corrupt criminal system – as the diaspora has been trying to do over the past 25 years – will result in more flawed corrupt criminal activity and business failures. The 800 pound gorilla and 2000 pound elephant in the room (the commander-in-thief/brutal dictator and his money hungry, tax evading, monopolist mafia) are still in the room! His suggestion to fully support them is suicidal for Armenia! This criminal dictatorship must first be eliminated by constant full pressure of delegitimization and the full application of rule of law!! Not support!

   • {This criminal dictatorship must first be eliminated by constant full pressure of delegitimization……}

     A few dozen SorosaCadres and SorosaNGO disinformation channels have been trying to, quote,”delegitmize”, the duly elected governments of Republic of Armenia for years.

     All have been abject failures.
     And all will continue to be abject failures.

     And anyone who is eager to “….first eliminate this criminal dictatorship…..” is welcome to got to Armenia and try.

2. Robert, we don’t need advise from the likes of you.

3. I agree with most of the assessments made by Mr. Ruben Vardanyan. After all, if everyone turns his back the other way and refuses to see what is happening in present Armenia, the current situation will worsen. However, the high level of apathy or lack of interest that exists within the citizens and the diaspora has been made possible only by the failed performance of the last three presidents who governed Armenia for the last 25 years. Unfortunately, these unqualified and unseasoned individuals with draconian Soviet style mentality have steered the country into disaster; that is, disaster in every sense. When Armenian became independent, many of us thought our small country will become a powerhouse in the region, a free, prosperous and happy society driven with democratic principles. A country where the population would stay in the homeland and the diaspora will repatriate to Armenia. As it may be, at the outset, the public had unequivocal support and faith in its leadership. Unfortunately, the leadership has failed to deliver. Now that the situation has blown out of control, Sargssyan wants to introduce reform by appointing Karen Garabedyan as the new Prime minister (PM). By the way, the new PM appears to be a very capable and seasoned manager. Should we support the new Prime Minister, is the billion-dollar question…On a balance, we probably Should. As Mr. Vardanyan said, ‘We Won’t Get a Second Chance’

4. Gabe Korajian:
    
   Like many others, you repeat and spread the same old negative bromides about Armenia and its leadership.
   Not very helpful at all.
    
   1{ has been made possible only by the failed performance of the last three presidents who governed Armenia for the last 25 years.}
    
   What metric did you use to decide they have supposedly  “failed”?
   When USSR collapsed, Armenia was left with nothing.
   Do you remember when residents of Yerevan were cutting down municipal trees for heat?
   NPP shut down; natural gas lines from Russia being blown up weekly by Turks in Georgia; a trickle of heating oil being imported from here and there.
   About 50,000 dead due to a massive earthquake: 1000s and 1000s of families broken.
   100s of 1000s displaced.
   Infrastructure destroyed.
   Collapsing USSR leadership basically having abandoned Armenia SSR.
    
   A genocidal war launched by Azerbaijan to wipe out Artsakh’s indigenous Armenians.
   100s of 1000s Armenian refugees from Baku, Sumgait, Kirovabad escaping slaughter at the hands of Turkbaijanis pouring into devastated Armenia.
   Two Turkic “neighbors” blockading and trying to strangle little Armenia.
    
   Given what they had to work with, Presidents Ter-Petrossian, Kocharian, and Sargsian did an outstanding  job.
   Compare them to their counterparts in Georgia and Azerbaijan and tell us again how is it exactly they supposedly “failed”.
   Given the treacherous waters they had to navigate the small ship of Armenia, with everybody and his brother trying to wreck it, they did great.
   The proof is the undeniable fact that Armenians control more of their historic ancestral lands today than in centuries.
   Yes, all three made mistakes: who doesn’t ?
   And yes: there are many problems to solve still.
   But all this regurgitating of the false doom&gloom prognostications needs to stop.
    
    
   2{ thought our small country will become a powerhouse in the region, a free, prosperous and happy society driven with democratic principles}.
    
   What are you comparing Armenia with?
    
    
   3.{  A country where the population would stay in the homeland and the diaspora will repatriate to Armenia}
    
   Populations of neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan did not stay in their respective countries either.
   Very prosperous, very democratic EU-member  Baltic republics are hemorrhaging their native peoples since their independence.
   Young Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians are fleeing their native countries in droves: Why is that ?
    
   4.{ Now that the situation has blown out of control,…}
    
   What is blown out of control?
   Pres. Sargsian started discussing reforms years ago.
   Constitution was changed by voters to a parliamentary system in RoA.
   It will bring more stability and predictability.
   And the new government has a good percentage of technocrats.
   All good things.
    
   EPILOGUE
    
   Since independence Armenia and Artsakh and their people have faced many challenges and have overcome them all.
   When we – Armenians everywhere – work together, we can accomplish anything.
   Again, the proof is today’s RoA and NKR.
   Those who do not want to support RoA or NKR – Don’t.
   But please stop spreading negativism and defeatism.
    
   Unconditional love and support for Armenia and Artsakh.
   Nothing else will do.

   • Good points Avery, with one exception, when you suggested Ter Petrossian did an outstanding job. Were you serious about this? The way I see it, that was perhaps the worst thing that ever happened to Armenia at its independence. My opinion, the damage everyone is suffering today, not to mention the division we have, is because of him and his ilk. Had he gotten his way, there would probably be no basis for an Artsakh Republic today.

5. Avery, Norserunt – so, what do you suggest? Leave the bloodsucking criminals headed by Serjik to continue their oligarchic rule in Armenia? Is that better? Is you problem that all efforts thus far have failed or is your problem that there have been efforts. Rest assured its a matter of time before Serjik is gone and the likes of you are exposed.

6. Not sure if those who write comments read the same interview I did. What Vartanyan says is for Armenians to set aside their differences and rally around the new PM to help him solve the problems. I would assume that being an educated and wealthy man who is famous for his philanthropic activities, he knows Karen Karapetyan well enough to trust him and throw his weight behind him. He knows very well that the system is flawed and he believes that Karen Karapetyan is the one who might be able to make some changes. Sadly, I see that Armenians are as usual busy pointing their fingers towards each other! One is suggesting that the only way out of this is to eliminate the current dictatorship, as if removing Serjik will automatically dismantle the whole oligarchic system. Another is accusing him of being on Soros’s payroll, as if criticizing Serjik and his corrupt system makes you a Soros minion(the kind of accusations you will see on Russian or Iranian TV channels!!). The president and his team are indeed corrupt and elections are rigged and those who deny these are simply delusional. But the way out of this is not revolutions, revolutions have never led to democracies and if the opposition could do it they would have done it by now. The only way out of this is for the leadership to understand that their system is dysfunctional and embark on reforms that will eventually lead to change. It is obvious that Serjik has finally realized this and came up with some new ideas(transition to parliamentary system, new electoral code, new PM) now whether this will lead to any real change or not depends on us and that is what Vartanyan is trying to say.

7. Telling people to support the government to solve the problems created by the very same corrupt government is ridiculous. the government have stolen 2 elections and responsible for sealing the country’s wealth. if the government wants to help solve the problems of Armenia then Sarkissyan and his mates could return the billions they have stolen, that might be a start then they need to move aside and let legitimate people who care about the Armenian people take power. But we all know they wont do that and blindly supporting these horrible people is not the way forward. The damage they have done to Armenia with their monopolies, destruction of 10 blocks of historic Armenian buildings in old yerevan for greed, the loss of 2 million people forced to emigrate, allowing criminal gangsters like liska, a murderer to govern and terrorise regions of the country stealing and doing what he wants, the rise of poverty to over 30 percent of the population, raising the dept to over 5 billion, and put into prison people who demand freedom and free elections.Supporting them in some kind of solidarity with the devil is not the way forward and unfortunately my friend people like Vardanyan coming out to tell us to support the government is just more window dressing to steal the next election and regain confidence of European institutions who no longer want to loan money to Armenia because it all gets stolen by the oligarchs.

   • He is not telling people to support the government, he is telling them to support the new prime minister and the reforms initiated by the government. You might argue that the ruling party has initiated these reforms to steal the next election but then the question is why would they change anything if they could steal the election anyway?! The answer is simple. They realized that their system does not work, they realized that their system is doomed to failure otherwise they would never bring an outsider like Karapetyan to be their next PM. If you think that a change of president and his cabinet are going to change an entire system, then you better have a look at Ukraine. Lets say Serjik resigns and leaves the office, what do you think is going to happen next? You think the oligarchs are going to return what they have stolen so far?! Or maybe you think the next president is going to arrest the top 20 wealthiest people and seize all their assets?! That will destroy the economy overnight. In case you have forgotten, it was Levon Ter-Petrosyan the fist president who laid the foundation of this corrupt system. Changing individuals is not going to change anything, Armenia needs a systemic change for people to stop selling their votes for 20 or 30 dollars, for people to stop venerating the likes of Dodi Gago(you never know, he might be the next president if Serjik resigns!!). That is why Vartanyan is investing his money on education instead of creating his own political party and jumping on the bandwagon. We, Armenians, really need to stop looking at things wearing these black and white glasses. We need to understand that building a democracy is a painful task which takes time and resources. It needs well-established political parties with their ideologies and principals and educated citizens who value democracy. There is no doubt that a parliamentary system is more flexible and power more divided, nevertheless we see that the opposition is unable to consolidate and form a strong block against Serjik which takes us back to the first question: Will a change of president change the whole system?

8. I have tremendous respect for Ruben Vardanyan but disagree with his view that we should all support the new PM. We could support but it would make no difference. PM is a temporary figure to mitigate the extreme tensions after Sasna Tsrer.

   The PM does not have real power. I have nothing against him, he may be an excellent manager and a leader. However, real power rests with criminal Sergik Sargsyan. As soon as the PM starts making real changes that damage Sergik’s brother and his entire criminal oligarchic support base he will be replaced. And there is no way to fix the economy without touching the oligarchy. I think he is smart enough not to get there and even if he had the guts he may not have time to do that – in half a year there are new elections, after which we may have yet another “savior” PM.

   These are all Sergik’s well thought out chess moves. I give him credit for that. But time is running out on him as well and he will no longer full people in Armenia and the diaspora. The best thing he can do is resign and disband his criminal Republican Party that has been rigging elections, stealing national resources and driving emigration for too long.

9. Ritooli, that was a brilliant commentary. Bravo. Too bad your words will go over the heads of most people here as they clearly have a Western agenda.

10. (Gevorg Yepremyan // October 24, 2016 at 10:21 pm)

    {Rest assured its a matter of time before Serjik is gone….}

    President Serj Sargsian’s term will expire in 2018.
    Hopefully he will remain an active member of RPA, and continue serving the Republic of Armenia. As you well know, unlike the likes of you, and other SorosaSanasarians who do nothing other than constantly protest, he has actually served the Republic in various important capacities.

    {…. and the likes of you are exposed.}

    I have been commenting at various sites, including ArmenianWeekly, for many, many years. My message is always the same. And I have already ‘exposed’ myself quite clearly.

    On the other hand you (generic you) SorosaCadres, SorosaSanasarians, SorosaNGOs, SorosaTVs, etc have been running around and spreading lies and disinformation about Armenia, while concealing the fact that you (generic you) are funded and/or supported by foreign elements who want to harm Armenia.

    The goal is to demoralize and psychologically defeat the people of Armenia, so it can be turned into a SorosaVassal. Like Ukraine, for example.
    Thank God, Armenians have a finely tuned instinct for survival, and have rejected all attempts of subversion. And the few misguided individuals who resorted to violence are resting comfortably in Yerevan jails.

11. I am afraid that a lot of my fellow diaspora Armenians do not have a realistic grasp on the realities of Armenia, hence all this talk about “regime change, vote rigging, thugs, corruption” etc etc. This is all too easy to “find solutions” when you’re approaching Armenia’s problems from one dimension. But that is not the reality. Armenia has a multi-dimensional problems, and before any of you go calling for “revolutions”, perhaps you can make a case for what you will do for Armenia’s existential threats first, in case you manage to “free Armenia from the oligarchs and thugs”. What’s your defense against Turkey and Azerbaijan’s aggression? What’s your relations with Russia which can cripple Armenia both economically and militarily at any time?

    Even funnier, those calling to boot Russia out of Armenia. Armenia’s military and defense is entirely based on the Russian model and technology. What do you propose it will be replaced with? NATO?
    lol…

    If anyone wants to help Armenia and make it stronger, propose improvements to what we have rather than complaining about everything, especially when you’re not even living there.

12. Too bad the criminal-election-and-billion$$-stealing-regime apologists here are expert bullies and liars, in addition to being huge paranoid name-calling assumption-makers throwing around words like western, soros and SorosaSanasarians, none of which apply to me. And they make off-handed suggestions like one must go to Armenia to try to remove the election and money thieves. I DO, 3+ months a year. I produced two documentaries showing massive election fraud. But my opinion and those opinions of most other commenters above expressing a deserved intolorance to the regime’s horrific theft of mega funds and elections and human rights – our credability/honesty/character is assassinated by the criminal regime apologists. WATCH! Just calling them out for what they are will set the off and triger their attack reflex…

    • I will also say, with each word they use to attack me and other concerned diasporans, they are pointing their hate speech in the wrong direction. Every word of attack SHOULD be pointed in one direction: to the criminals who continue to hijack the government as mega money, elections, and human rights thieves! OK, now watch them attack me instead… GO!

    • Yawn.

    • I smell a vile Soros operative.

13. *burp*

14. Ah yes! I knew it! I rest my case! It’s all about attacking ME instead of the criminals running amuck as they hijack the government! Fascinating!

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