We Armenians get very encouraged when we see an Armenian last name in a foreign media outlet. Moreover, this encouragement doesn’t necessarily mean that the Armenian last name is mentioned in a negative or positive aspect. Even if we are dealing with a negative phenomenon we are interested. We are trying to justify that. We are speaking about the theme for a long time. We should mention with grief that the international media hardly ever remembers Armenia or Armenians. During economic and political comments the name of Armenia is mostly mentioned next to the name of Russia when the west illustrated the empire-oriented politics and notions of Russia. In such cases Armenia is presented as a bright example of circle hanging from Russia. Perhaps that is the reason why during the interpretation other than this context is always of interest to us. The most resilient example of the recent period was the arrest of the Armenian thief-in-law in the US, nicknamed “Pzo.”
Of course such a noise case is very negative for the image of the country but many people are really surprised and like the methods how these people could get money from the Medicare. Another fresh example the western media has published is no less surprising but in this case there are no justifications and reasons to be happy. I mean the two citizens of Armenia who tried to sell enriched uranium in Georgia. It happened long ago, on April 14, but the judicial process is going to be finished soon and the international media is again focused on this deal. Yesterday the Guardian published information about it.
The Georgian president Mikhail Sahakashvili spoke about this noisy case in April during the 15th nuclear summit in Washington, but the details had not been published anywhere. The process was behind the closed doors to provide security of the Georgian department of fighting against the distribution of atomic weapons. The representatives of this investigation department gave exclusive information to the Guardian.
“During the investigation it turned out that the uranium, which can be the main part of a warhead, can be found in the black market and can easily pass the border bypassing the radiation detectors installed with the American money,” writes the Guardian and adds that it is not clear yet how much radioactive materials are circulated in the black market and whether extremist powers have been able to buy them yet.
”During the past years billions have been spent to provide security of nuclear objects, including those in Russia. But it is not clear yet how much radioactive material has been stolen so far. It is assumed that the uranium that Sumbat Tonoyan and Hant Ohanyan were going to sell was stolen several years ago. As a result of the expertise in the US, the uranium has been enriched up to 89.4%, which is enough to make a nuclear warhead. The arrested people had only 18 grams of the radioactive material, but the provider from Armenia told them that they could give them more. The 63 years old former farmer Tonoyan and the 59 years old scientist Ohanyan transported the uranium from Yerevan to Tbilisi by a train, keeping it in a cigarette box covered by tin. Their meeting with the buyer had to take in Tbilisi on March 11. The Armenians thought they were going to sell the uranium to a representative of a muslim group, who was an undercover agent. Anybody who reads this article may think that Armenia supports terrorism.
The bad thing is that in the recent time the names of Armenians are discussed in a context of ”crimes”. There were a lot of publications concerning the murder attempt against ”Ded Hasan”, the deals of ”Pzo” and the spies arrested in georgia. Two of the people accused in espionage were Armenians named Armen Gevorgyan and Ruben Shikoyan. Yesterday the Vzglyad newspaper wrote that there are suspects that these people work for the Armenian intelligence services. Of course nobody can say this. However one thing is for sure that it is very bad that in our neighboring country our names are discussed in the media as people who are involved in intelligence.
Of course Russia did not wait to name these actions as a political trick. However, we have to disappoint our people who think that this propaganda against the Armenian crime is connected with geopolitical issues (such as the Armenian-Russian partnership and the American-Georgian jealousy). The brightest example is the criminal case launched against the Armenian member of the Russian parliament Ashot Yeghiazaryan. He is accused in the embezzlement of a lot of money and has escaped to London. It means that Russia is struggling against the Armenian crime factor too. If we also add the minor and small publications about the events in participation of Armenians in the international media, we will see that an environment has been formed in the international media, which represents the Armenians in dark colors and criminal deals.
While the Armenian government is spending a lot of money to advertise Armenia on CNN and other international channels, and while our people are advertising our city as the ”city of the world” in Shanghai expo, we are being shown to the world totally from another look. Of course the easiest thing we can do is to announce that it is organized by the ”dark forces”.
P.S. Yesterday the press department of the Armenian National Security service published an announcement with the following content: ”A number of electronic media companies have published information reading that in March of this year two Armenian citizens were arrested by the Georgian special services, who tried to sell enriched uranium in the territory of Georgia. In the framework of the cooperation between the Armenian and Georgian special services, in March of this year the Armenian security services arrested an Armenian citizen named Garik Dadayan, who is suspected in being connected with this case. A criminal case has been launched against him under the second part of the 215th article of the RA criminal code, with the accusation against transporting radioactive materials. During the actions aimed at discovering this crime the Armenian and Georgian security services cooperated closely.”