I owe an explanation to the readers of my blog. I haven’t posted for quite a while. The reason – well, it’s complicated.
Lack of time is the main reason. I feel I’ve got too much to do at work and I keep adding on responsibilities and taking volunteer tasks, so I’m usually quite overwhelmed. I’m determined to change this from now on.
Building my own house is another reason. After nearly 10 years of living in rented apartments, I finally moved to my half-built house in one of the remote suburbs of Yerevan and started building it. This consumed the few remains of my free time and all my financial resources since August and I’m not even half through the construction. In fact, I only have a proper bathroom. That’s about it. The rest of the house is a mess and I feel shy even when friends say they want to visit. What am I going to show them? And what are they going to think about me for living in such conditions…
Huge disappointment about the political developments in Armenia is the third reason. Looking at the Armenian opposition as well as the civil society I see no hope, that anything can ever improve in this broken country. And this feeling often makes me wonder, are my efforts at work worth it and does it make sense for me to complete the construction of my house, or should I just pack and leave.
However, as the new year comes into force and the incumbent president Serzh Sarkissian continues to force his way through a second term, I feel that I have a responsibility to keep blogging, primarily for myself – to try to reflect on what’s happening and also for those few remaining readers that I may still have despite my long absence. I guess I have to do it, because otherwise all the rest of the stuff I’m doing – work, building a house and even walking the dog, will become completely pointless. Because why would I need to work, or build a house for if I see no future and no reason. Nope, I’m not going to give up, even though common sense prompts me, that its the only logical course of action…
Artur Papyan
Journalist, blogger, digital security and media consultant
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Apres, Arthur jan. Hope the house turns out well and you have time to keep up with the blog in the coming months. I’ll certainly try to find time to frequent it as often as I did before.
Apres axbers. I’ve been a reader of your blog for quite sometime, and wondered where you had gone.
The country of Armenia needs good people like you. Please stay. Good things will come. Good things are happening.
Astvac dzez pahi.
Happy New Year, Art! I think it’s clear to all that any cloning program in Armenia should begin with you! And of course that means that we wish you to succeed in all your enterprises. It’s also clear that Facebook has become the main venue for political discussions, but for those of us who aren’t there, your blog is an important and trusted source of information and analysis, so I hope you’ll somehow find the time to update it when possible.
As for the upcoming election, your disappointment is certainly shared by me. A presidential election should be a time where the important issues of the country are seriously discussed and debated among the candidates. Even if the citizens believe that the final result is preordained, or fixed, and even if they mistrust some or all of the candidates, they should still demand a platform where the candidates are pressed to give their opinions and debate each other. Otherwise, you are left with vapid, unchallenged statements and empty promises ( <> – a headline I saved in 2008 from “ArmeniaNow” – did you get yours?) Yet, I haven’t read of any plans for candidate-to-candidate debates.
An election without discussion of the issues makes Armenia a democracy as unfinished as your house is now. You can live in it, but just barely, and it is uncomfortable, embarrassing, and depressing. Armenians deserve and should demand better, because the gravest enemies of the country are apathy and depopulation.
Art jan, keep moving, exbayr. I’ll move with you. And don’t be shy of your half-built house. When I turn back, I see that anything that worth remembering took place in no or bad living conditions: start from tents during hiking tours, finishing apartments and half-built houses… So no worries, «Մի՞թե կոստյումը պետք է գեղեցկացնի ձեզ»: And if one doesn’t get this, s/he doesn’t worth your attention.
The only way for Armenia to get fixed, is if Armenia opens its doors to the diaspora and the Dashnaktsutyun takes control and cleans up all the trash of the country. Without massive influx of diaspora Armenians = everything will remain the same.
My dear friend, I share your frustratioy about your half-built house and your anger on Armenian senseless politics, but look at it from a positive persepective. The house is hlaf-built and not completely grounded and you are in your own country. As you remember I left Armenia quite a while ago, although I have a good job, great lifestyle but I am always foreign here Art jan. Regardless your decision I will always support as well as others. While you are in Armenia I keep reading your blog if you decide to pack, I am here to help you. All the best bruv!!!
Very true, no matter how long you live here, you always feel like a foreigner. The problem is, once you go back to Armenia, you are treated like a foreigner there, too.
It’s a big mistake to leave your country in the first place.
Show must go on Art jan!
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