Գագիկ Ծառուկյան

Five years ago, ahead of Armenia’s parliamentary elections, the publication of an interview with an elderly woman rocked the ship of the Armenian political arena very hard. If Facebook were as popular in Armenia back in 2007 as it is today, it would be more difficult for Gagik Tsarukyan to get his newly formed Party of Prosperous Armenia into the Armenian National Assembly.

In April 2007,  Zhamanak published a scandalous interview with Roza Tsarukyan, the mother of Armenia’s richest man, which shed light on a significant portion of about $500 million that Armenia’s state budget had been losing every year between 1996 and 2006. According to “Tax Potential vs. Tax Effort: A Cross-Country Analysis of Armenia’s Stubbornly Low Tax Collection,” an IMF working paper published in 2007, the Armenian budget has been bereft of these revenues due to tax under collection (http://zlmedia.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/imf-tax-issue.pdf).

Below is an excerpt from a Zhamanak journalist’s 2007 interview with Roza Tsarukyan, who runs the agricultural division of her son’s prosperous business empire (http://zlmedia.wordpress.com/2007/04/05/dod-tax/):

- Mrs. Tsarukyan, what’s the total number of the jobs you have created?

- Oh no, if I say it, the tax inspector will then come and ask “why don’t you show all the taxes?”

- Say as many as reported.

- 78.

- Mrs. Tsarukyan, so is it true that you don’t show your taxes in full?

- We hide some of them, we don’t show some of them, we show some of them, of course!

- That’s why people say that you evade taxes and then do charity for the people with it.

- And right we are! If we have been smart enough to do that, then we’re doing the right thing…

- Why don’t you pay your taxes, so that the state can give pensions, allowances?

- You want me to give it to them so they go to Monte Carlo? I’m not going to give… I’m giving it to the socially vulnerable strata of the society, I’m giving it to a kindergarten, I’m giving it for free medical treatment.

Mrs. Tsarukyan was clearly trying to portray her son, Gagik Tsarukyan, as some sort of Robin Hood who steals from the perversely rich (Serzh Sargsyan) and gives it to the poor (the Armenian people). The glaring truth is that Tsarukyan was stealing from the state budget, which most probably serves as a food trough for Serzh Sargsyan, too. Being Armenia’s richest man, Gagik Tsarukyan would have to be engaged in self-robbing to deserve any comparison with Robin Hood. However, judging by the income he reported ahead of the parliamentary elections of 2012 (http://zlmedia.wordpress.com/2012/04/18/dodi-gago-income), he doesn’t seem to have made any progress in that direction.

What conscientious tax-payers of Armenia in 2007 expected to happen following that frank conversation was a full-blown investigation into the unintentionally disclosed information. But this interview only came to prove Gagik Tsarukyan’s invincibility in the face of the incumbent authorities. Even the obvious humiliation of the then Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, who allegedly lost big dollars in Monte Carlo while gambling, bore no visible consequences.

On the contrary, the relationship between Serzh Sargsyan and Gagik Tsarukyan has been growing warmer and warmer ever since those remarks by Mrs. Tsarukyan. First of all, her son was welcomed into the Government coalition in April 2008. Secondly, and notably, a month later Gagik Tsarukyan gave himself entitlement to a self-pardon, when he made the following statement on TV: “Let bygones be bygones, a line has to be drawn from now on, and everyone should work with documents and pay one’s dignified taxes.”

Thridly, in 2011 (about three years later), Tsarukyan signed a coalition memorandum, which was, in part, a guarantee of support for Serzh Sargsyan’s candidacy at the upcoming 2013 presidential elections. And last but not least, Serzh Sargsyan recently appointed Gagik Tsarukyan a member of the Armenian National Security Council. Among other issues, as A1plus reports, “customs and tax reform programs in 2011-2013 were discussed at the session” (http://zlmedia.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/tsarukyan-security/). It is quite ironic, that one of Armenia’s major tax evaders will henceforth be “reforming” the country’s tax system. As Jivani put it in late 19^th century: «Գայլը վրան ոչխարի մորթի առած, գառներուն պահապան հսկող է դառած» (“Covered with sheepskin, the wolf has become a guarding warder for lambs”).

Tsarukyan runs his campaign with a gun but lies that what is seen is a phone

Serzh Sargsyan had the tax collectors go after another oligarch, Khachatur Sukiasyan, who not only refused to support him but joined his opponent, Levon Ter-Petrosyan during the presidential elections of 2008. It is obvious, the former head of the National Security and, currently, the self-declared president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan is concerned more about the security of his seat than that of the state and its citizens.

Ironically, today, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, whose political team has announced its intention to topple the current criminal regime, is flirting with one of the pillars thereof, Gagik Tsarukyan and his Prosperous Armenia Party.  The purpose has been speculated to be the weakening the Republican Party of Armenia. Never mind that since joining the government coalition in 2008 Prosperous Armenia shares the ruling party’s responsibility for all the socio-economic failures that have brought the country to its knees.

The logo of Teghut Movement

Dear self-determined members of the civil society of Armenia,

The Shahan Natalie Family Foundation and The Truth Must Be Told initiative support your persistent fight in defense of public interest in Mashtots park, Teghut forest, Kajarants village, Jermuk resort and elsewhere. Your activism lays the foundation for a long-awaited civil rights movement in Armenia. When popular support, law and justice are on your side, the most powerful oligarchs are nothing but an army of paper tigers.

It is total nonsense that the Armenian government has justified the installation of the booths in Mashtots Park on the grounds that the illegality is temporary. When a government is a workshop of unlawful decision-making, the mission of the self-determined civil movement is to make sure such decisions are aborted. To keep the young activists’ fire aglow, we call on all NGOs, initiatives, celebrities and public figures in Armenia and the Diaspora to support this fledgling movement in any way they can.

This is also a big ‘thank you’ to the self-determined civil activists for raising awareness about the dangers of mass deforestation of Teghut forest and the pollution of catastrophic proportions once the mining begins over there; the annihilation of the entire borderline village of Kajarants in the south for the purposes of expanding the mining area of a private company.

Your victories — notably the waterfall of Trchkan and the Park of Dragons — have been a source of inspiration. There are all the prerequisites that the same triumphant fate awaits your ongoing and future fights. The Shahan Natalie Family Foundation and The Truth Must Be Told wish the best of luck to the team of ten activists who have committed to the task of dismantling the illegal construction units in Mashtots Park, on March 31, 2012.

You are a true inspiration for civil activists in the Armenian Diaspora throughout the world. Your civil power does more to attract repatriates to Armenia and Artsakh than Ari Tun and all the efforts of the Armenian government combined.

Ara K. Manoogian

Ara K. Manoogian is a human rights activist representing the Shahan Natalie Family Foundation in Artsakh and Armenia; a Fellow of the Washington-based Policy Forum Armenia (PFA); creator of www.thetruthmustbetold.com.

(Հայերեն տարբերակը՝ «Ազգային ինքնասպանությունը՝ ընթացքի մեջ»)

Charles Aznavour vs. Serj Tankian

I asked a provocative question at the Armenian National Committee (ANC)  Grassroots conference, on November 25, 2011, regarding the catastrophic proportions of emigration from Armenia, calling it “the white genocide of 2011”. I made sure to emphasize the controversy of the wording, over which the members of the Diaspora community appear to be divided. I wanted to get more opinions.

“White genocide”, as defined in Wikipedia, is the term Western Armenians use to describe assimilation in the West. Until the first years of Armenia’s independence, it has been referred exclusively to the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923. However, the mass emigration that followed Armenia’s independence was often associated with ‘white genocide’ by the public at large. What Eastern Armenians are going to face in the future outside their homeland is most probably gradual assimilation. The reality is that today about half of the Armenian citizens prefer the prospect of non-violent assimilation over a life doomed to poverty, humiliation, and injustice in their homeland at the hands of their own government.

Of all panelists, I directed my question first and foremost to Serj Tankian, who has been outspoken about the Genocide of 1915. Below is Tankian’s answer:

What’s going on in Armenia is not a genocide. But it’s very tragic. “Genocide” is a very specific term that we have to take seriously, otherwise, you know, a lot of people, Genocide scholars who know of what’s going on… It’s a very specific thing. But what’s going on in Armenia is sad: with people leaving, the corruption, the injustice, economic imbalance, which exists in a lot of the former Soviet republics that have gained their independence. (Ara K. Manoogian’s personal archive)

Even at the metaphorical level, Tankian doesn’t appear to see any genocidal tendencies in the history of Armenian people beyond the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923. Tankian then began giving excuses for the current situation in Armenia: “Armenia is not the only. You have to view things in a geopolitical perspective, not just from the eyes of an Armenian, obviously.” Then he indicated an achievement: “The greatest thing about Armenia is there is no fear of speaking the truth. You know, that’s one thing on our side, which doesn’t exist in some other post-Soviet republics.” Exactly, ‘some’ other republics, but not ‘all’ the others. So, why not compare Armenia with the other republics that have done much better since the fall of the USSR?

Another panelist also wanted to answer my question regarding the white Genocide. Award winning filmmaker, Eric Nazarian, as he justly noted in advance, practically echoed whatever Tankian had to say about the mass emigration: “You know, it’s a schizophrenic time for all post-Soviet republics.”

To put it simply, their response means that whatever happens in Armenia is normal. All you have to do is look at it from the geopolitical perspective.

When Serj Tankian or Eric Nazarian speak of Armenia’s geopolitical region, I wonder if they understand all sides of the geopolitical perspective themselves. Situated to the north of Armenia, Georgia was a lot worse off in 2003 than Armenia and any other former Soviet republic. However, this country was able to consolidate its potential and get rid of its corrupt regime. Since then, war-torn Georgia has made such essential democratic reforms that it has stepped into the European Union with one foot. Armenia has Turkey and Azerbaijan as enemies; Georgia has the gigantic Russia. Armenia won a war with Azerbaijan; Georgia lost three wars: to Abkhazia, South Ossetia and, more recently, to Russia. It is true that, unlike Armenia, Georgia has access to sea and doesn’t suffer from double blockade. However, it is important to understand that Georgia enjoyed the same geographic convenience before the 2003 revolution, but, nevertheless, suffered deeper crisis then any other post-Soviet republic due to incompetence and bad governance. I wonder if Georgians would achieve anything had they simply adhered to the convenient excuse of a troubled geopolitical region.

Such opinions are very convenient for the corrupt Armenian authorities. Knowing Serj Tankian as an outspoken activist who has made critical statements — no matter how mild and general they were— about the Armenian government back in Armenia, it is sad to observe that his viewpoint has similarities with that of the traditional Armenian Diaspora, which tends to forgive the ills of the Armenian authorities, thus giving them a green light for further abuses.

While Tankian’s position could also be viewed not so much as forgiving, but rather optimistic about the future, there is a whole army of influential Diaspora Armenians advocating forgiveness. Here is a very typical statement by Berj Setrakian, President of the AGBU, made at the birthday party of Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II in New York, on October 12, 2011:

Comparing to the 15 republics of the former Soviet Union, we are the only one, which had three presidential elections. None of the presidents tried to stay beyond his term. We had parliamentary elections. It’s not a perfect system, but it is a better democracy which works than in any other Soviet republic. And we should be proud of it. There is no doubt that there is corruption. Unfortunately, after the fall of the Soviet Union, today corruption is something spread all over the world. <Unintelligible>. So let’s be a little compassionate. Let’s not always be critical of what we have. We have a little country; we have our independence. I am sure, we can do better. I am sure that our governors can do better. But let’s take the positive side, because otherwise we’ll never build a country. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGYZVf4ChJU)

Again the remedy is in looking at Armenia from a geopolitical perspective. However, in this particular example the speaker is so incompetent as to compare Armenia to all the post-Soviet republics, three of which, the Baltic states, are already full members of the European Union. Furthermore, Setrakian lowers the bar to such a degree that we should be proud of merely having had presidential and parliamentary elections. It no longer matters how fraudulent or deadly they have been.

The slogan for such policy could be ‘Don’t criticize Armenia, or else the enemy will benefit.’ It is not criticism that the enemy benefits from, but the consequences of the target of that very criticism. The enemy benefits from Armenia’s bad governance that depopulates Armenia, rather than the desperate outbursts of criticism intended for preventing mass emigration.

This policy of forgiveness is a grave punishment for the people of Armenia, who do not have the comforts of these Diaspora Armenians to sit and patiently wait for the geopolitical climate to improve and democratic reforms to evolve.

That is exactly what another well-known Diaspora Armenian preaches in a recent article. In “Excessive Negativism and Constant Attacks Jeopardize Armenia’s Development,” Benon Sevan, former Head of the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program, writes:

Regardless of our impatience and desire to witness a truly democratic state of Armenia, we have no alternative to being patient, because it takes time to develop democracy, economic and social development, and civil society, as well as true democratic reforms. (California Courier Online, October 13, 2011. Also, click to read: “Response to Benon Sevan’s Call to Shut Up”)

How many more years is this standpoint going to dominate over the Armenian Diaspora? The average number of schoolchildren in Armenia per school was 399 in 2000; it dropped by 35% to 256 in 2010, as reported by CivilNet.com. The Prime Minister rejoices over the increase in emigration of the Armenian people who might otherwise stay and protest. Vardan Ayvazyan, former Minister of Ecology, Head of the Armenian parliament’s standing committee on economic issues, member of the ruling Republican party of Armenia, has characterized the mass emigration as Armenia’s economic benefit. “A migrant is a type of product,” he said on December 16, 2011, as reported by Regnum, a migrant Armenia exports and gets paid in the form of remittances.

Denis Donikian is a French-Armenian writer, known for his highly critical views about both the Armenian government and the Diaspora. And this is what he wrote about this conformist variety of Diaspora Armenians:

When Serj Sarkissian instituted himself at the head of the country under fraudulent conditions which we knew about, when he threw his opponents in jail, when he continues to incarcerate Diasporans who have fought for Karabakh, and even denies them Armenian citizenship, the representatives of this same Diaspora were never so furious and menacing as they are today, when it is “their” Genocide that is at stake. As if the dead were more alive for them than the actual living. By not supporting the democratic opposition which has been screaming all year-long against the absurdities and deafness of the Sarkissian regime, by leaving to their fate a countryside that has been willingly abandoned, by not denouncing firmly the white genocide of economic emigration, the Diaspora should have expected to one day receive back the “fair” change for its coin. (“The Armenian Diaspora and the Cuckolds of Armenia,” by Denis Donikian, October 11, 2009. Translated from French by Viken Attarian. Available at: http://attarian-essays.blogspot.com/, and quoted by PFA in “Armenia-Diaspora Relations: 20 Years Since Independence”)

But things are changing. About two weeks after the ANC Grassroots Conference I learnt about Charles Aznavour’s latest attack against the corrupt Armenian regime on December 12, 2011. In a press conference in Moscow, Charles Aznavour was quoted by Lifeshowbiz.ru as saying:

My country is now facing an internal genocide. I consider it politically unacceptable. Not letting Armenia breathe, the government is depriving its own country of youth. They leave. And in that respect, the issue has become not just political, but universal. It needs urgent solution. (“Шерше ля Шарль” at Lifeshowbiz.ru)

This was Aznavour’s second resounding blow to the Armenian government following his scandalous interview to Nouvelles d’Arménie published about two months ago (in English at Hetq.am). This time he enraged the authorities with the taboo word of ‘genocide.’ It is noteworthy that in his interview to Nouvelles d’Arménie, Aznavour advised not to concentrate too much on using the word ‘genocide’ to describe the massacres perpetrated by the Turkish government, whereas he chose to use that very term to describe the actions of the Armenian government.

These statements made by Aznavour are especially strong in the context of the honors the same authorities had been paying him for many years, including the recently opened museum in one of the best locations in Yerevan.

For many years, Charles Aznavour had been the target of Denis Donikian’s poisonous attacks, because of his loyalty to the authorities. What made Aznavour, generally believed to be in bed with the authorities, speak about problems created by these very men of power? Charles Aznavour, who had turned a blind eye to the brutal murder of Poghos Poghosyan, a Georgian citizen of Armenian descent, by Robert Kocharyan’s security agents back in 2001, now speaks against the authorities.

In any case, I am glad that the honors from the government have failed to silence Charles Aznavour’s conscience. And I hope other celebrities will reconsider their priorities. But before they do, a number of Diaspora Armenian intellectuals, such as Ara Toranian, editor-in-chief of Nouvelles d’Arménie (Paris), Yeran Kouyoumdjian of Azat Khosk, an electronic publication (Nicosia), according to 1in.am, have echoed Charles Aznavour’s harsh assessments.

At the ANC Grassroots Conference, I also asked Serj Tankian to comment on accepting the Prime Minister’s Memorial Order medal for his contribution to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide from Tigran Sargsyan, whose poor performance has its significant share of responsibility for the present-day massive exodus of Armenians from their homeland. Tankian said the following:

The medal that I received for Genocide awareness… I thought about it before receiving it, before getting it. And I had two notions that came to mind. First, that he represents the Armenian people. He’s not just a Prime Minister, as, you know, tattooed on the table. Number two: it was a great opportunity to actually get involved and speak truth about… (Ara K. Manoogian’s personal archive)

I strongly believe that this honor, like all those conferred upon Charles Aznavour, will not prevent Serj Tankian from speaking the truth about the authorities for all to hear.

What the Armenian government does might not be ‘white genocide’. However, the mechanism is strikingly similar. The authorities’ unpopular policies eventually lead people to emigrate from Armenia. Settling outside Armenia, they run the risk of being subject to whatever the Western Armenians are doomed to, white Genocide, a gradual assimilation as the final stage of the Genocide of 1915-1923. It sounds more like national suicide.

For comfort, Serj Tankian advises us to look at the disastrous developments in Armenia “not just from the eyes of an Armenian.” But as long as I fiercely resist the white Genocide that persists in the Diaspora, such ability is unattainable for me.ծ
Ara K. Manoogian is a human rights activist representing the Shahan Natalie Family Foundation in Artsakh and Armenia; a Fellow of the Washington-based Policy Forum Armenia (PFA); creator of www.thetruthmustbetold.com and author of the white paper “To Donate Or Not to Donate”, an in-depth study on the activities of the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund

Robert Avetisyan, Special representative of Artsakh in the U.S., speaks at ANC Grassroots about army abuses, liberated territories, “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund and youth.

Ara Manoogian, the creator of The Truth Must Be Told, pledges $1,000 to the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund 2011 telethon and encourages others to do the same.

“As a donor to the Fund, I will be demanding that my $1,000 is used for bringing drinking water 24/7 to the people of Artsakh, as the Armenia Fund is promising to do, and will encourage other to do the same,” said Ara Manoogian.

A hostess of the All-Armenian Fund telethon 2011 has declared that 88% of all illnesses in Artsakh could be water-related. If this is true, then anyone who does not donate is truly turning their backs on the people of Artsakh. For this reason, Manoogian chose to donate generously.

The Truth Must Be Told strongly encourages everyone to look beyond all the problems that plague the All-Armenian Fund and donate. We are not saying that we should forget or ignore the problems, but instead donate and then demand that the money is properly used.

Ara K. Manoogian is a human rights activist representing the Shahan Natalie Family Foundation in Artsakh and Armenia; a Fellow of the Washington-based Policy Forum Armenia (PFA); creator of www.thetruthmustbetold.com and author of the white paper “To Donate Or Not to Donate”, an in-depth study on the activities of the “Hayastan” All-Armenian Fund