Just a short round up of some notable posts from the Armenian Blogosphere as time is limited. However, the type of content is more varied than usual and covers everything from culture and health to relationships and arms dealing. Culture is where we’ll start.

Garo (AKA Christian Garbis) at Notes from Hairenik recently saw Armenian troubadour Arthur Meschian perform in Vanadzor. Meschian recently returned to Armenia after leaving the country in the 90s, and Garo is still suitably impressed by his musical prowess.

The two-and-a-half hour show divided in two sets was simply terrific. He had the same five-piece band with which I saw him perform exactly a year ago at the Gomitas Chamber Hall in Yerevan. Musicians included the great folk-rock guitarist Vahan Artsuni, who is a disciple of Meschian having performed with him in the 1980s, Arthur Molitvin on bass, the drummer for Vostan Hayots, Levon Hakhverdian, who incidentally performed at their reunion concert last week given in Yerevan, and on keyboards my friend from Boston, not to mention Meschian’s longtime amigo, Ara Sarkissian, a talented composer himself. Meschian doubled on electric piano and acoustic guitar. This time around Hakhverdian was actually permitted to play his instrument instead of performing in a frustrated mime-like muffled manner at the show I attended last year, by the strict instructions of his leader. He justly proved himself to be an exceptional rock drummer, and his rhythms fueled Meschian the entire evening, whose voice seemed to soar in kind.

I’m not sure if Meschian is the bag of many a young lover in today’s Yerevan, but Nareg over at Cilicia.com reports that musical accompaniment to set the mood doesn’t appear to be obligatory for couples making out in the capital. Indeed, he says, everything appears to be out in the open. The only thing necessary is a public space.

I’ve been walking around this city for four years now, and I’ve noticed a distinct upswing in smooching in public places in the course of this time. Some spots, to be sure, are notorious for other, more base reasons, but any old average park in Yerevan is seemingly appropriate for any couple of inamoratas these days. Not even a park per se. I was just walking past “the monument”, up at the end of the Cascades (where, by the way, they’ve put up a large boat on a table with a huge chair next to it… that’s for another entry, though, I guess), and there was this couple engrossed in one another on a bench, pretty clear for all the world to view… And someone was sitting next to them…! A young lady, at that. She looked like she was waiting for the next marshroutka…

But back to some more serious matters. Simon at Blogian reports that Hetq Online has taken a post from his site and republished it as an article. Great to see bloggers influencing and providing the content for the media in Armenia. The story, originally posted on his site by a blogger in Turkey, concerns the discovery of a mass grave from the Genocide and the subsequent cover-up by the Turkish military.

I was glad to see my senior Turkish friend and human rights activist Ayse Gunaysu’s “Found by Villagers; Covered up by the Military” article published at Hetq.am. The initial report was written for this blog per my request. After I shared it with Hetq’s editor Edik Baghdasaryan, he said he would consider an edited copy for publishing.

Good job, Ayse!

Bloggers also seem to be making the news elsewhere as well. Artyom at iArarat reports that the Boston Globe and Balkan Analysis have published news of a conflict of interest in the appointment of a retired U.S. General by the Bush administration to assist the Turkish military deal with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). The appointee also has business interests with Lockeed Martin who sell military jets to Turkey.

My old friend Mark at StumbleUpon has more.

Here he is, General Ralston, ’special envoy’ to Turkey, on the board of directors for Lockheed Martin, the arms and defence company who have just agreed to sell Turkey 30 F16 Planes at $2.9 billion. And are set to secure a deal ahead of a Euro company for $10billion for 100 F35 fighter jets later this year. George Bush and the Neo Cons seem to care more about arms deals than peace deals. All these deals have been secured since Joseph Ralston arrived in Ankara. And they have been against the preferred options of the elected Turkish government. It is because of these links between the Neo Cons and Turkish ‘deep state’ that the ex FBI translator Sibel Edwards has had one of the heaviest legal ‘gagging orders’in history placed on her.

She knows about these links because she translated phone taps from the Turkish embassy in the USA. When she complained that one of her collegues (a Turkish spy) was mis-classifying and covering up important taps………SHE, Sibel Edwards, was fired!

To end, after posting the first half of an account of her own family’s personal experience with the medical system in Armenia, Zarchka at Life Around Me has posted the next installment. The posts were made in support of others made by Arsineh at Cilicia.com decrying the low standards of doctors and hospitals in Armenia. Zarchka now says that faced with this reality, her family found other alternative methods instead.

One day a man meets my mother on some affair. In the conversation some third person says that incidentally that man is a doctor and that my mum’s son is ill. That man immediately wants to see my brother. After talking to my brother for several minutes, after some questions and examining some test results he says that he is more than sure to treat him in 3 months. He doesn’t want to talk about money and says that he is ready to start the treatment as soon as we are. He mentions that he doesn’t admit traditional medicine and everything he does is based on alternative medicine.

As we had nothing else to lose after what the previous doctor did, we agreed. He opened a wound with garlic on his both legs and put peas, covering them with cabbage leaves. He visited us every day. The treatment included drinking some water, injections and massages and unlike others he said to feed my brother with everything he wants and not to deny him in food. We never knew what medicine those were and what he was applying on my brother’s body during the massage, but as far as we saw the difference we weren’t against that obscurity. My brother’s appetite returned, although he had lost so much weight that his bones were seen under his skin. An awful bloody stuff was coming out from the holes on his legs. First days he couldn’t walk, then he got used to the peas and later on he was already running with them in the open wounds.

This much for now. More as of when.