Returning from Goris, the Hayastantsi farmer added a few thoughts to his recent conversation with the Karabaghtsi: “These Karabaghtsis have no memory. It wasn’t long ago Azeris were killing Karabaghtsis in Baku, Kirovabad, and Sumgait. And they say they were getting along well with the Azeris, that if Hayastantsis hadn’t demanded independence and protection for Karabagh, all would still be well? And, are they forgetting the massacres in Shushi in the early 20th century, again committed by their ‘friends’ the Azeris? Between massacres, they’re brothers with the Azeris, thinking all is well. I was in a village in Karabagh a few months ago and what were they watching on television but Baku…and when I asked them why they were watching Baku television, they just said, why not? I told them why not…that if they ever wanted to be free of the Azeris, to become Armenians, they needed to start living like Armenians…they barely know who Sayat Nova or Komitas are…”

Back home in Yerevan, a friend told what he had learned about the recent suicide of the 19-year-old university student. “Everything seemed to be fine,” he told. “He had just gotten back from vacationing with his parents and family, and had bought books for the coming school year. Then he kills himself. It happens that it wasn’t exactly local sect activity that killed him, but a different kind of sect…that found on the Internet. What he was doing was going to a site where they tell people about the worthlessness of life, post recordings that people download and listen to on their cell phones, and even tell their future victims the day they’re supposed to do away with themselves. Tragic. We have enough trouble in Armenia with the regular sects, now better organized than ever, infiltrating villages like wildfire, preying on people struggling to get by. And now this…”