While waiting for someone in the Kino Moskva coffee shop, a Karabaghtsi friend (roots in Vank village, near Gandzasar) appeared on the scene. He began talking about Karabagh-related subjects, from the Road Map, to Serge, to Eurovision.

“I was born in Yerevan, but I’ll always consider myself Karabaghtsi, and I’ll always be proud of my roots. Sometimes, though, this isn’t easy.

“We don’t have a television in our house, so I hadn’t seen the video clip of our girls (who participated in Eurovision). One day, driving through town, I turned on the radio, and when their song started, I was scared, startled. Then I realized it was sung by our Eurovision contestants. I was embarrassed that these two girls, with roots in Karabagh, would sound like this.

“They had taken the start of Komitas’ Horovel, ruined it, then went on with I don’t know what. And watching them during the competition…now I know why someone who works in producing here in Yerevan asked, jokingly, if the girls’ dressing rooms were too cold, as if so perhaps this is why they had worn such heavy costumes. And, one thing for sure, if there hadn’t been so many Armenians in Europe voting for the girls, they would have been way down in the voting. Almost all their votes came from countries with a large Armenian Diaspora.”

He continued, talking about Obama’s recent April 24 speech, and Serge Sargsyan. “I wish people wouldn’t worry so much about what Obama said or didn’t say. Armenians in the Diaspora are saying how disappointed they are that the genocide word wasn’t used. But if you think about it, look at it logically, and legally, Obama recognized the Genocide. His saying that the resilience of the Armenians over the past 94 years and their contributions to society, in spite of the attempts to destroy them…with these words, ‘the attempts to destroy them,’ Obama, an attorney, is describing the legal definition of genocide. Not to mention him saying “Meds Yeghern,” the Armenians' word for Genocide.

“Therefore Armenians should be thanking Obama for recognizing the Genocide. They should concentrate on the positive part of what he said, not the negative. They should publicly thank Obama for recognizing the Genocide. And instead of spending all their time with what Obama did or didn’t say, they should be writing letters to Serge, telling him to forget this ridiculous Road Map, and to go ahead and recognize Karabagh’s independence. If this continues, this Road Map and all, Serge will go down in history as another Melik Shahnazarian, one of the great traitors in Karabagh’s history.”