Skeletons, closets and the AGBU Ball

By Apisoghom Agha

SaveMelkonian.com Cyprus correspondent

The AGBU Central Board’s press machine is all quiet these days. Is it because a venerable member of the Board has been implicated in possibly the biggest scandal to hit the United Nations?

The sensationalist and often right-wing media of the U.S. (you know, the kind that hire charity presidents as their lawyers) have been targeting our dear Benon Sevan, whose name is popping up all over the place, suggesting that he took oil bribes from Saddam. Naughty, naughty...

Funny how all this time, nobody bothered with the fact that B.S. (no, not the lawyer) was an Armenian Cypriot, and now, all of a sudden, this fact crops up.

Ironically, certain people who in the past claimed to be close to Sevan, are now ready to cast the first stone, even saying such gems as “I told you ages ago that he was a crook!” Yeah, sure...

I wonder how many more skeletons will come out of the AGBU closet. Some are ready to come out and bound to become a major liability for the Setrakian/Simone team. In other cases, old feathers, dating back to property deals in 1986 and fees/commissions paid, are expected to be ruffled.

The Cyprus leadership of the AGBU and their paid servants are also on the brink of nervous collapse, as one after another, their local events are doomed to failure. Only a handful of people showed up to a ‘jashjgerouyt’ a few weeks ago, and the ones who did got involved in a fight!!

This, and the dwindling finances of the one-time proud club, have also forced the powers-that-be to cancel their annual ball on December 25, a date traditionally defended with great zeal by the local chapter. Possibly, the new assistants that the Nicosia Club boss has hired could not come with the necessary numbers to host a dinner dance.

As a sign of consolation, other fellow combatants of the “pro closure” camp, have even shown up at the Nicosia club house for the occasional coffee, something they had not done for decades.

Is this a sign that some people are having a change of heart? Doubt it. Some of them don’t even have a heart...

As the saying goes, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”, so brace for more skeletons regarding Benon Sevan’s investments and the activities of people involved in past dealings related to Melkonian property.

Inshallah!