Turkish Hotel Denies Accomodation to 120 Children

When was the last time you heard of an Armenian hotel doing this? Then they say I'm biased!

Monaco Beach Hotel of Turkish Kemer was to accommodate the Moscow youth. But the busses with children and teens were going from one seaside resort to another till 6:00 p.m., as the children were banned from entering the hotel hall. The youngest of them were losing consciousness due to the lack of water.

...another reason of delay was the desire of hotel authorities to get $16,000 compensation for the previous group.

Filthy. Disgusting. Genuinely Turkish.

Source: Kommersant

Armenia's Newest Sniper Revealed

About a year and a half ago I blogged about Armenia's purchase of some weapons from the famous Zastava factory in Serbia. Very few details were available at the time.

The picture above is a Zastava M93 Black Arrow sniper rifle, believed to be part of that large order. It shoots the mighty .50 caliber round and can engage targets over 2 kilometers away.

Oh, and who are those two fellows eye raping it?

More information on the rifle can be found here.

Is Kim Kardashian Dating Vanes Martirosyan?

There have been rumors circulating that these two are seeing each other. We've found this picture which makes things even more complicated. What do YOU think?

Armenia Exports Bananas...NOT!

You must be thinking that I've gone B-A-N-A-N-A-S! Hetq found this bit of statistical curiosity and decided to investigate:

In 2006, Armenia exported 3002 tons of bananas to the Bahamas and 91 tons to Georgia. In 2005, 594 tons of bananas were exported to the Bahamas. The Republic of Armenia’s State Council on Statistics provided these figures.

If you're thinking WTF, you're not alone. Surely bananas don't grow in Armenia, so how can they be exported to other countries? Funny you should ask.

...in 2005-2006 the "Ketrin Ltd" firm exported 59.44 kilos of banana oil to the Bahamas, an amount equivalent to the 755.4 tons of bananas imported on a temporary basis for reprocessing purposes...

So some statistical bluffing, then? Sure seems wasteful to ship bananas from the Bahamas to Armenia only to ship it back, especially given the high cost of trasportation in the last couple of years. But there's more!

The "Godfather of Bananas" was Grisha Harutyunyan, the former Deputy Chief of the National Security Service. He in fact owns "Ketrin Ltd". He has been lining his pockets with untaxed profits for years on end. We’re not talking about $1 or $2 million, but rather tens of millions of dollars.

A tale of greed and the shadow economy: that's more believable!

Source: Hetq

Armenian Churches Become UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Very happy about this one!

Located in Iran, the Monastic Ensembles are represented by three churches: St. Stepanos, the Chapel of Dzordzor, and St. Thaddeus, the latter being one of the oldest churches in the world, whose construction began 1700 years ago.

A terrific step towards preserving a bit of our culture from destruction, but still a long way to go!

Source: HotelClub

German Hostages Freed in Turkey

The Kurdish group PKK has released three German hostages in Turkey.

The tourists were seized from their camp on Mount Ararat in Turkey's eastern Agri province on 9 July.

The PKK had vowed not to release them unless Germany renounced its crackdown on the group, defined as a terrorist organisation by the US, EU and Turkey.

My first observation is that climbers are indeed allowed on Mount Ararat, contrary to popular Armenian belief, and the other that the PKK is becoming a real thorn on Turkey's political ambitions.

Source: BBC News

Armenian Man Strangles Girlfriend to Death

This is yet another story that I was to publish a month ago but didn't. A terrible, terrible crime out of Glendale.

Grigor Grigoryan, the 39-year-old man who was arrested Friday after a police pursuit ended in Hollywood, is scheduled to be arraigned on murder charges after an autopsy determined his girlfriend was strangled to death in her home.

The woman, whom Glendale police identified as 35-year-old Yvette Hakopian, was found dead Friday afternoon in her home on the 600 block of West Stocker Street, setting off a manhunt for her boyfriend.

Anonymous people writing to the blog have indicated that she was in a troubled relationship and wasn't allowed out by the boyfriend, who apparently has a long history of criminal acts. Unfortunately, when she decided that she had had enough, he killed her. Further sources have said that she was raped before being killed.

Source: Glendale Newspress

Chess Grandmaster Karen Asrian Dies

Karen Asrian died one month ago today, apparently suffering a heart attack while driving. Skeptical people have contacted me about the true cause of his death but unfortunately I don't have any further information other than what has been reported.

Karen Asrian was one of Armenia's leading grandmasters. Not only did he win the title of Armenian Champion three times but also won a gold medal at the 2006 Olympiad in Turin.

He was 28. May he rest in peace.

Source: ChessBase