Garen Yegparian is a fat, bald guy who has too much to say and do for his own good. So, you know he loves mouthing off weekly about anything he damn well pleases to write about that he can remotely tie in to things Armenian. He's got a checkered past: principal of an Armenian school, project manager on a housing development, ANC-WR Executive Director, AYF Field worker (again on the left coast), Operations Director for a telecom startup, and a City of LA employee most recently (in three different departments so far). Plus, he's got delusions of breaking into electoral politics, meanwhile participating in other aspects of it and making sure to stay in trouble. His is a weekly column that appears originally in Asbarez, but has been republished to the Armenian Weekly for many years.
5 Comments
You are ABSOLUTELY correct! I took a group of 21 young adults to Armenia in 1972. We stayed two weeks. Heroically, I got them all up at 6 am and slept them off at 10:30 pm. According to the Hayasdantsis that worked with us…”we were the travel ingest young group thus far to visit Armenia. The day of our departure featured a meeting with the Cultural attaché in Yerevan….Mr. Hamazasbian. He asked how we liked Armenia. Everyone gave a resounding “wonderful”. Then he asked if there were any inconveniences. Everyone gave a resounding response:
“Zoukaranner”. And then the young people emphatically, one-by-one remarked at the disgusting, smelly, filthy condition of what they alleged to be “toilets” In those days…the urinal in the OPERA HOUSE….of all places…was a big tub in which everyone openly “peed”. In the Opera House?
Thank you for your article…apparantly NOTHING has changed in Armenia in 40 years!!! Except that as a “democracy” they’ve got 246 Casinos from the Airport to Yerevan…a downtown that looks like Fifth Avenue….and the rest of Armenia is poverty stricken and looks like tobacco road. WOW! God bless you.
What a strange problem! Would have never guessed it was an issue. Interesting…
Your article is very important…
Every thing is costly…Let them charge …
Like you use Harrods facilities in London, UK you pay one English pound…(more than one $ )
This was almost 3 years ago, I haven’t been there for long…may be now they increased their charges…!
I agree totally with Mr.Yepgarian. On my 3 visits to Armenia, that was my most aggravating comment on our visits there. The tourist trade is probably the most important way of getting to help the economy of Armenia. It really is disgraceful to have to attend public functions and visit many places and not have decent facilities. My suggestion at the time was to do something about this situation and am sorry to see not much has changed over the years. I think they should listen to his remarks which I am sure reflect the feelings of the thousands of visiters to Armenia. Thank you.
You are correct that public restrroms are vital to increasing the tourism industry. As a matter of fact if current tourism businesses focused their tour destinations on places that included restrooms a big message would be sent to other businesses that this was a vital necessity for growth of business.
It seems that the place to start would be to build a water sanitation system large enough to accomodate a large increase in sewage processing. Then to make it a requirement for all public buildings under construction as well as for remodeling as it occurs to incorporate restrooms into buildings for public use. Incentives for other businesses to install restrooms would also be helpful.
Another point that should be addressed is garbage. There seems to be a major increasse in the distribution of disposable waste/garbage ending up strewn across the countryside in the most unattractive and harmful ways. Recycling and trash disposal would also help keep the country clean and beautiful. Tourists drink huge quantities of bottled water for example.
I love this country and am returning for my 7th year trying to help provide safe homes. I see the waste that accumulates along the roadsides and down ravines. It needs to be dealt with because greater tourism means higher volumes of trash as well.
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You are ABSOLUTELY correct! I took a group of 21 young adults to Armenia in 1972. We stayed two weeks. Heroically, I got them all up at 6 am and slept them off at 10:30 pm. According to the Hayasdantsis that worked with us…”we were the travel ingest young group thus far to visit Armenia. The day of our departure featured a meeting with the Cultural attaché in Yerevan….Mr. Hamazasbian. He asked how we liked Armenia. Everyone gave a resounding “wonderful”. Then he asked if there were any inconveniences. Everyone gave a resounding response:
“Zoukaranner”. And then the young people emphatically, one-by-one remarked at the disgusting, smelly, filthy condition of what they alleged to be “toilets” In those days…the urinal in the OPERA HOUSE….of all places…was a big tub in which everyone openly “peed”. In the Opera House?
Thank you for your article…apparantly NOTHING has changed in Armenia in 40 years!!! Except that as a “democracy” they’ve got 246 Casinos from the Airport to Yerevan…a downtown that looks like Fifth Avenue….and the rest of Armenia is poverty stricken and looks like tobacco road. WOW! God bless you.
What a strange problem! Would have never guessed it was an issue. Interesting…
Your article is very important…
Every thing is costly…Let them charge …
Like you use Harrods facilities in London, UK you pay one English pound…(more than one $ )
This was almost 3 years ago, I haven’t been there for long…may be now they increased their charges…!
I agree totally with Mr.Yepgarian. On my 3 visits to Armenia, that was my most aggravating comment on our visits there. The tourist trade is probably the most important way of getting to help the economy of Armenia. It really is disgraceful to have to attend public functions and visit many places and not have decent facilities. My suggestion at the time was to do something about this situation and am sorry to see not much has changed over the years. I think they should listen to his remarks which I am sure reflect the feelings of the thousands of visiters to Armenia. Thank you.
You are correct that public restrroms are vital to increasing the tourism industry. As a matter of fact if current tourism businesses focused their tour destinations on places that included restrooms a big message would be sent to other businesses that this was a vital necessity for growth of business.
It seems that the place to start would be to build a water sanitation system large enough to accomodate a large increase in sewage processing. Then to make it a requirement for all public buildings under construction as well as for remodeling as it occurs to incorporate restrooms into buildings for public use. Incentives for other businesses to install restrooms would also be helpful.
Another point that should be addressed is garbage. There seems to be a major increasse in the distribution of disposable waste/garbage ending up strewn across the countryside in the most unattractive and harmful ways. Recycling and trash disposal would also help keep the country clean and beautiful. Tourists drink huge quantities of bottled water for example.
I love this country and am returning for my 7th year trying to help provide safe homes. I see the waste that accumulates along the roadsides and down ravines. It needs to be dealt with because greater tourism means higher volumes of trash as well.