Poverty Drives Armenian Man to Suicide

Suicide is not news and it happens all the time, but it is even more tragic when the circumstances are so moving.

A 41 year-old ethnic Armenian, Amiran Mkhitarian, a resident of Georgia's capital city Tbilisi, killed himself yesterday, Rustavi-2 TV channel reported. It said abject poverty was the reason that drove the man to committing a suicide...the man killed himself after failing to find money to buy febrifuge medicine for his five year child.

By the way, febrifuge is medicine that decreases fever.

Source: ArmenPressA

Turks Plotted to Kill Armenian Patriarch

This incident happened on the 40th day of Hrant Dink's death.

Two teenagers, arrested by Turkish police and identified as Volkan K. and Elmaz N... admitted they had gone to the church to kill the Armenian Patriarch of Turkey Archbishop Mesrop Mutafian.

The arrested are charged with illegal arms possession and shooting in the air with an aim to threaten. Prosecutors have opened a criminal case against both.

Are Turks drinking Jermuk or something else that is making them act crazy this year?

Source: ArmenPress

VIDEO: Armenians Targeted in Iraq

Armenians and other non-Muslim minorities are being killed in Iraq for their beliefs. This video was sent in by an Armenia Blog reader; His mom is the woman interviewed in the clip starting at 2:05.

Record Number of Accidents & Emergencies

Just have a look at these numbers. Horrific!

Rescue service affiliated to Armenian Regional Administration Ministry said 7126 emergency cases have been recorded in the country over 2006.

The rescue service says the increase in number of emergency cases was mainly due to traffic accidents and fires.

I'll break the numbers down for you:

2006/2005
Man-Caused Accidents: 4,566/2,978
Social & Domestic Accidents: 2,313/1,250
Casualties: 2,186/1,841

Why is it that these numbers almost doubled in a year? Is the reporting better? Are people being more dangerous? Are more emergencies preventing workers from getting to others? Is there a case of being understaffed or underfunded, vis-a-vis emergency workers, equipment, etc.?

Maybe someone can shed some light on this.

Source: Arka

Azerbaijani Sniper Kills Armenian Soldier

I hope this incident is not related to this one. Here's the story:

Armenian defense ministry said an Armenian serviceman was fatally wounded by an Azerbaijani sniper today morning at a position on Armenian-Azerbaijani border near the town of Berd. The ministry said Armen Malkhasian, 19, was wounded in the head and died on the road to hospital. Seyran Shahsuvarian, a spokesman for Armenian defense ministry, said an investigation was started into the incident.

This is getting out of hand: what is the future of our two countries?

Source: ArmenPress

Azerbaijan Claims Soldier Killed Near Karabakh

Apparently having forgotten about their breaches of ceasefire, they're on to something new:

Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry says Armenian forces shot dead an Azerbaijani soldier near the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region

Armenia's Defense Ministry denies the charge. The Armenian side said its soldiers were preserving the cease-fire agreement in the area. Azerbaijan does not recognize the independence of the predominantly ethnic-Armenian territory, which has been under dispute since a six-year conflict that ended with a 1994 cease-fire.

We'll see what becomes of this story.

Source: RFE/RL

Hrant Dink Killed in Turkey

This is what we know so far:

A prominent Turkish-Armenian editor, convicted in 2005 of insulting Turkish identity, has been shot dead outside his newspaper's office in Istanbul. The US, EU and Armenia have condemned his murder and Turkey's leaders vowed to bring those responsible to justice.

"A bullet has been fired at democracy and freedom of expression," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a hastily convened news conference.

Dink was given a six-month suspended sentence in October 2005 after writing about the Armenian genocide of 1915. Dink was among dozens of writers in Turkey who have been charged under 301 of Turkey's penal code with insulting Turkish identity, often for articles dealing with the killing of Kurds and Ottoman Armenians.

This is a real tragedy and shows just how much Turkey has to change before it should even be considered as an ally of Armenia, the EU, or the world.

A big thanks to Sassna and Khoren for suggesting the story as it broke.

Source: BBC