A call from a resident of Yerevan’s Charbakh district revealed a sad event that took place near Moscow on Vardavar, this past Sunday. Several Armenians living in Moscow went out of town to a picnic area to celebrate Vardavar. During the course of the day’s events, someone who had been drinking apparently said something that a middle-aged Charbakh-born male didn’t take kindly to, the Charbakhtsi telling the person, in so many words, to “mind his manners.” Telling the Charbakhtsi he had no business telling him what he could or couldn’t say, he picked up a skewer and stabbed the Charbakhtsi, killing him.

Our caller went on to say how shocked he was, that even though Armenians are a hot-blooded people, such a violent act would never have happened during Soviet times, as people’s lives were better, more balanced, and that the people involved in Sunday’s violence were likely Hayastantsis struggling to make it in Russia...and that if such a violent act had occurred in Soviet times, it would have been committed by hot-blooded youth, not middle-aged persons, as was the case on Sunday.