The California Courier Online, May 2, 2019
1 - Trump: A Coward on the Armenian Genocide
Like Obama, Bush Jr., Clinton, and Bush Sr.
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Pashinyan slams Erdogan for ‘insult to Armenian people and humanity’
3 - Trump April 24 Statement Avoids Acknowleding ‘Genocide’
4- AAF: $4.5M of Aid to Armenia, Artsakh from January to April
5- Commentary: Birds of a Feather: Donald Trump and Nikol Pashinyan
Which populist-demagogue do you prefer?
By William Bairamian
6- Armenian MPs call for trans activist to be burned alive
after historic speech
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1 - Trump: A Coward on the Armenian Genocide
Like Obama, Bush Jr., Clinton, and Bush Sr.
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Pres. Donald Trump issued last week his third April 24 statement “on
Armenian Remembrance Day.” And for three years in a row he did not
muster the courage to use the correct term—genocide—to describe the
annihilation of 1.5 million innocent Armenian men, women, and children
by the Ottoman Turkish government.
Pres. Trump basically repeated the same words that he used in the past
two years, with very minor changes. Again he used the Armenian term
“Meds Yeghern” (Great Crime) to avoid calling the mass killings a
genocide. Meds Yeghern is simply a description that Armenians used
before the word genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin in the 1940’s,
whereas genocide is a term of international law and has legal
consequences. Besides, if Pres. Trump insists on using an Armenian
word, he should have said “Tseghasbanoutyoun” (genocide).
Many Armenians had been hoping ever since his election that Pres.
Trump would rely on his unpredictable impulses to describe the
Armenian mass killings as genocide, ignoring the counsel of his
advisors and the position of his predecessors. Unfortunately, Pres.
Trump knows very little about Armenian-Americans and can care less
about their interests. The only time Pres. Trump will pay attention to
the genocide issue is when Armenian-Americans gain more political
clout.
It should not take much courage for Pres. Trump to use the term
Armenian Genocide since Pres. Ronald Reagan already used it in his
Presidential Proclamation on April 22, 1981. In fact,
Armenian-Americans do not need Pres. Trump to say anything on April
24, if he cannot call it genocide. The Armenian Genocide has been
already recognized by the United States several times. In addition to
Pres. Reagan’s statement, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted
two resolutions in 1975 and 1984 acknowledging the Armenian Genocide,
and the U.S. government sent an official document to the International
Court of Justice (World Court) in 1951 recognizing the Armenian mass
killings as a case of genocide.
Nevertheless, Pres. Trump’s inadequate statement has a couple of
secondary benefits to the Armenian Cause:
1) It irritates the hell out of Turkish leaders who seem to be ashamed
and outraged that the President of the United States is reminding the
world of “one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century,” and
asserting that “beginning in 1915, one and a half million Armenians
were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in the final
years of the Ottoman Empire.” Both Turkish President Erdogan and
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reacted with indignation and denial
to Pres. Trump’s April 24 statement.
2) The statements of Pres. Trump and his predecessors cause each year
a major political reaction around the world, generating mass publicity
in the international media which is further fueled by the Turkish
leaders’ denials.
On April 24, 2019, Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan issued an
important statement on the 104th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
Surprisingly, his statement did not mention Turkey or the Ottoman
Empire as the perpetrator of the Armenian Genocide. This must have
been an unfortunate oversight on the part of the Prime Minister and
his aides. I do not think it was done intentionally, particularly
since the statement does include a strong reference to Armenians
losing their homeland in addition to the human losses. In the past,
Armenia’s leaders have refrained from raising the issue of Armenian
territorial demands from Turkey.
Meanwhile, Pres. Erdogan issued a particularly disgraceful statement
on April 24, speaking at a Symposium in Ankara: “The relocation of the
Armenian gangs and their supporters, who massacred the Muslim people,
including women and children, in eastern Anatolia, was the most
reasonable action that could be taken in such a period.”
Erdogan is shamefully accusing the Armenian victims of committing a
mass crime against the victimizing Turks. This is an outrageous lie
which is the equivalent of accusing Jews of killing Germans during the
Holocaust. Erdogan must be suffering from a serious mental illness.
In a surprising development, Prime Minister Pashinyan responded
forcefully to Erdogan’s pathetic lies. Pashinyan described Erdogan’s
statement as “hateful” and called on the international community to
respond: “On the day when Armenians around the world mourned the
innocent victims of the Ottoman Genocide, Turkey, this country’s
president Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated a statement denying the
greatest crime of the 20th century, calling it only, ‘the deportation
of Armenians.’ To call the extermination of the entire Armenian
population of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the massive forced
deportation of Armenians (death caravans) ‘Armenian bandits and their
accomplices,’ and the massacre of 1.5 million indigenous people, ‘the
most logical behavior’ is not only a new level of denial of the
Armenian Genocide, but also an excuse for the destruction of an entire
nation. Such a statement on April 24, on the day of the anniversary of
the Genocide, is a deep insult to the Armenian people and all of
humanity, and an _expression_ of extreme hatred personally by Erdogan.
The world should not be silent.”
We are heartened that Prime Minister Pashinyan raised the issue of the
Armenian territorial demand from Turkey, a demand that the Armenian
government should pursue officially at the International Court of
Justice.
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2- Pashinyan slams Erdogan for ‘insult to Armenian people and humanity’
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has labeled Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s April 24 speech “a new high in denialism” of
the Armenian Genocide, and a “justification of nation murder”. The
Armenian leader urged the international community to respond to the
Turkish President’s hate speech.
“Calling victims of the Armenian Genocide, Ottoman Empire’s entire
Armenian population, which was sent to death marches, as ‘Armenian
gangs and their supporters,’ killing 1.5 million [people] & justifying
it by ‘most reasonable action’ is not just new high in denialism, but
justification of nation murder” said Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan
tweeted in response to Erdogan’s speech.
“Above all, doing this on April 24 is an ultimate insult to the
Armenian people and to humanity, extreme hate speech by Erdogan
personally. The world must speak out,” Pashinyan added.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the deportation of
Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century was
“reasonable” at the time.
Erdogan made the comment Wednesday at a symposium where he slammed
France for marking the Ottoman campaign against the Armenians as a
genocide.
“The relocation of the Armenian gangs and their supporters, who
massacred the Muslim people, including women and children, in eastern
Anatolia, was the most reasonable action that could be taken in such a
period,” Erdogan said in a Twitter post in English. “We see that those
who attempt to lecture us on human rights over the Armenian issue
themselves have a bloody past,” he added, accusing the French of
committing genocide in Africa.
The Armenian population in Turkey today numbers in the tens of
thousands. “I remember with respect Ottoman Armenians who lost their
lives under difficult conditions of World War I,” Erdogan said in a
message to the dwindling ethnic Armenian community in Turkey.
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3 - Trump April 24 Statement Avoids Acknowleding ‘Genocide’
WASHINGTON, D.C.—For the third year, President Donald Trump failed to
properly condemn as ‘genocide’ the Ottoman Turkish government’s
annihilation of millions of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans,
and other Christians in his annual April 24th commemorative statement.
“This is a cut-and-paste policy, set in Ankara by Turkish dictators
and enforced in Washington by American presidents,” said Armenian
National Committee of America ANCA Executive Director Aram Suren
Hamparian. “President Trump has once again granted Turkish President
Erdogan – an authoritarian and increasingly anti-American dictator – a
veto over honest U.S. remembrance of Turkey’s WWI-era genocide of
millions of Armenians and other Christians. Having promised an America
First presidency, he has pursued a Turkey First policy on the Armenian
Genocide. Having pledged to protest the persecution of Christians, he
has enforced a foreign gag-rule against honest remembrance of a
century-old crime. Having vowed to restore U.S. leadership, he has,
instead, outsourced American moral standing to a foreign dictatorship.
We look now to the U.S. Congress to provide the leadership that the
White House has failed to deliver.”
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4- AAF: $4.5M of Aid to Armenia, Artsakh from January to April
GLENDALE—The Armenia Artsakh Fund (AAF) delivered $4.5 million of
humanitarian assistance to Armenia and Artsakh from January – April
2019.
The AAF itself collected the $4.1 million of medicines and other
supplies donated by Americares ($3.7 million) and Direct Relief
($445,000).
Other organizations which contributed valuable goods during this
period were: Project Agape ($163,000); Howard Karagheusian
Commemorative Corp. ($77,000); Armenian EyecareProject ($67,000); Dr.
Albert Phillips ($12,300) and Dr. Stephen Kashian ($9,000).
The medicines and medical supplies donated during this period were
sent to the Health Ministry of Armenia, Artsakh Health Ministry, AGBU
Claudia Nazarian Medical Center for Syrian Armenian Refugees in
Yerevan, Arabkir United Children’s Foundation, Armenian Missionary
Association of America, Fund for Armenian Relief, Institute of
Perinatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology Center, Metsn Nerses
Charitable Organization, Muratsan Children’s Endocrinology Center, St.
Grigor Lusavorich Medical Center and The Howard Karagheusian
Commemorative Corp. In the first four months of 2019 AAF shipped to
Armenia and Artsakh $4.5 million of medicines, medical supplies and
other relief products. In the past 30 years, including the shipments
under its predecessor, the United Armenian Fund, the AAF has delivered
to Armenia and Artsakh a grand total of $824 million worth of relief
supplies on board 158 airlifts and 2,435 sea containers.
“The Armenia Artsakh Fund is regularly offered free of charge millions
of dollars worth of life-saving medicines and medical supplies. All we
have to do is pay for the shipping expenses. We would welcome your
generous donations to be able to continue delivering this valuable
assistance to all medical centers in Armenia and Artsakh,” said Harut
Sassounian, the President of AAF.
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5- Commentary: Birds of a Feather: Donald Trump and Nikol Pashinyan
Which populist-demagogue do you prefer?
By William Bairamian
Who Said It, Trump or Pashinyan?
“The election is going to be rigged.”
“He came to power by rigging elections.”
At first glance, US president Donald Trump and Armenian prime minister
Nikol Pashinyan couldn’t be more different. One is a billionaire, the
other a pauper. One is a successful businessman, the other a failed
newspaperman. One is prolific at finding private financing for his
activities, the other is moderately versed in finding foreign
government financing for his activities. One prefers red for the color
of his famous hat, the other black. One has a glorious head of stringy
hair, the other is bald.
But looks can be deceiving.
What little President Trump and Prime Minister Pashinyan share in
superficial comparisons they make up for in their respective
characters as political aspirants and leaders of government.
The Power of Doubt
A boisterous real estate mogul, Donald Trump’s first serious foray
into national politics was initiated by his persistent attempts to
cast doubt on President Barack Obama’s legitimacy. Trump was a leading
voice in the so-called birther movement that questioned whether Obama
was in fact eligible to run for and be president based on the
unfounded suspicion that he was not born in the United States. While
such tactics are commonplace in tense elections, continuing to cast
doubt on the legitimacy of a sitting president is unusual, not least
because it undermines the faith of the public in the institution of
government but also because it poisons the well of genuine political
discourse. Trump continued his crusade, continuing to claim after
Obama’s election as president that he was not born in the US, even
though Obama had caved in procuring his original birth certificate
that proved his legitimacy.
While his involvement in the birther controversy might be seen – and
even excused – as the confused bumbling of a political newcomer, it
would later prove to be but one tactic in Trump’s grander strategy of
continuously placing the institutions and leaders of the United States
under question: Hillary Clinton, the Central Intelligence Agency,
attorneys general, the Supreme Court, and others.
However early Trump started on his path to the presidency, Nikol
Pashinyan has him beat by at least a decade. The young man from Ijevan
entered the national political discourse as an incendiary journalist.
Shortly after the resignation of Levon Ter-Petrossian, Pashinyan
started publishing a string of inflammatory and unfounded accusations
about Ter-Petrossian’s successor, Robert Kocharyan, and members of his
government.
The volatile young journalist created fantastical accounts of the
corruption of government officials without being able to procure any
evidence, something the US State Department took note of when it
described Haykakan Zhamanak, run by Pashinyan, as “sensationalist
political tabloid”. According to a leaked cable years later, US
government officials again took note of the dubious nature of
Pashinyan’s claims and the the dismal reputation for neglecting facts
at the newspaper, writing, “Haykakan Zhamanak has a reputation for
publishing unfounded stories that tend not to be borne out.
Pashinyan’s allegation that the destruction of his car was an act of
intimidation has not been substantiated.”
Despite lost libel lawsuits, fines, and a succession of closed
newspapers, Pashinyan persisted in the producing invective that
resounded with the disaffected populace of a newly-independent
Armenia. It was an ignominious start to a new political career but, as
with Trump, the public attention was worth the cost.
Trump and Pashinyan share an astounding disdain for national
institutions. Trump and his allies in media have led millions of
Americans to believe that venerable national institutions like the
intelligence services and various departments within the
administration are corrupt.
Pashinyan, for his part, has worked for decades to undermine the
legitimacy of the very ministries and governmental departments he now
commands, suggesting, like Trump, that they were rotten to the core
and that the swamp needed to be drained. This included attacking
Armenia’s judicial system, electoral system, police, and high-ranking
officials, from the president on down. Years of largely
unsubstantiated attacks created a myth that constantly propelled
Pashinyan into the limelight and which, like with Trump, helped him
ascend to the heights of his country’s power.
The question is not whether either man was right in saying that
reforms needed to be made: any bureaucracy, especially one as large as
the United States or as anachronistic as Armenia’s, could use reform.
But, while mature states and statesmen understand the importance of
maintaining the people’s faith in their country’s institutions while
they work to reform them, this is of little concern to narcissistic
demagogues like Trump and Pashinyan whose primary interest is seeing
themselves in charge, whatever the cost may be.
Time + Social Media
Nobody took Trump seriously when he announced a presidential bid to
succeed Obama. With no experience governing and an unrealistic policy
agenda with goals like building a wall with Mexico and having Mexico
pay for it, his candidacy was long on popular rhetoric and short on
viable policy objectives.
But, realizing—or, perhaps, capitalizing on—the public’s fascination
with uncommon and occasionally distasteful speeches and
pronouncements, Trump filled stadiums and put on a show more
reminiscent of a megachurch sermon sans invective than a political
rally. Enemies were identified and pronounced loudly and repeatedly;
the system was not only broken but was rotten and needed a savior;
and, no promise was too grand in the pursuit of the office, even
bringing manufacturing back to the United States.
Pashinyan spent years denouncing anybody he could get his silver
tongue around. More eloquent in his public speeches than Trump, he
ripped through the straw men he created with uncanny ferocity and
pizzazz. If it weren’t enough that his political enemies seemed to
enjoy getting a rise out of him just to watch his exuberant
performances, his self-satisfaction occasionally betrayed his facade
of anger when he would let a smug grin escape during his tirades from
public squares and the parliamentary podium. If Armenia had a problem,
Pashinyan knew who to blame and how to solve it and he let everyone
know.
What really accelerated the popularity of both Trump and Pashinyan
were social media. Whatever they had said or done before was
supercharged by their judicious posting on Twitter for Trump and
Facebook for Pashinyan. This blindsided both their opponents and once
they realized that they ruled the social media ecosystem, they
exploded with content that went viral. Rather than engaging in
meaningful debate with their opponents, they preferred the facile
interactions curated for high-engagement audiences that then
encompassed more and more supporters bewitched by the fervor.
Cognitive Dissonance
The most curious difference between the two is not in personality
trait or governing style but in how they are perceived. While Trump is
often bemoaned in not-so-subtle allusions as the second coming of
Hitler, Pashinyan is hailed as the second coming of Christ or, more
popularly, Gandhi.
Given the similarities in how the two men rose to power, it is hard to
avoid the implication that divisive and dishonest rhetoric is
acceptable so long as it happens in the right setting. This ugly truth
is soundly demonstrated by Armenian-American detractors of Trump who
moonlight as die-hard supporters of Nikol Pashinyan.
The same person who will upbraid friends and family for their
ignorance in supporting who they see as a deceptive power-hungry
bombast will lead a parallel crusade against detractors of a person
who fits the same description but happens to be found halfway across
the world. The cognitive dissonance would be utterly hilarious if it
wasn’t confoundingly jarring.
What’s doubly confusing is the readiness by many to reproach Trump as
a populist neo-fascist for his demagoguery while rejecting such a
characterization of Pashinyan who, in reality, is every bit, if not
more, a demagogic populist with fascist tendencies as Trump is
purported to be.
In the ten years since Robert Kocharyan left office and Serzh Sargsyan
ruled the country, there have never been so many journalists pressured
by Armenia’s government. In less than a year, the editor-in-chief of
one of Armenia’s most popular news sites and critic of the current
government, Konstantin Ter-Nakalyan, was summoned for questioning
[Armenian] by the country’s National Security Service. More ominous
were raids of the offices of two prominent media outlets, News.am
[Armenian] and Yerevan.Today.
The journalist rights group Reporters Without Borders commented on the
Yerevan.Today raid by saying, that “the search of Yerevan.Today’s
premises and the seizure of its equipment constitute grave violations
of the principle of the protection of journalists’ sources, which is
guaranteed by Armenian legislation and the European Court of Human
Rights.”
Despite Donald Trump’s regular verbal attacks on the media, Americans
take solace knowing that at least the offices of anti-Trump media
outlets haven’t been raided.
What is perhaps more worrisome is the contemptuous attitude of both
men toward their countries’ respective judiciaries. Here again, while
Trump has publicly lambasted judges and the court system, Pashinyan
outstrips him in his audacity by beating dead any illusions that there
is any independent judiciary left in Armenia.
Besides the widely publicized call between him and the head of the
NSS, Artur Vanetsyan, that was leaked and showed Pashinyan interfering
in a criminal case, he also rhetorically asked the crowd at a campaign
rally: “is there a judge in this country who can say no to anything I
say?” The question is why Pashinyan was commanding supposedly
independent judges to do anything that they might be compelled to say
“no” to and why he was publicly bragging about judges being fearful of
expressing views contravening his own, also suggesting that judges who
do would face consequences.
All this is excused by Pashinyan supporters, forgetting that many of
them were ready to crucify Sargsyan for lesser—and often
assumed—transgressions against the social and political order. The
justification process is a type of groupthink gone wild and when left
unchecked by critical voices, many of which are today silenced in
Armenia and Armenian communities worldwide by Pashinyan fans who
ostracize, mock, and threaten differing views. This rationalizing and
perversion of stated principles is actually an outgrowth of the
cognitive dissonance from which Pashinyan and his supporters suffer:
rationalization is necessary to fill the gap with what you said and
what you’re doing (the “dissonance” in the cognitive dissonance).
What has become clear over time through the creative rationalizing by
Pashinyan and his government’s officials who purported to be
principled defenders of democratic principles like justice and freedom
of speech when they were in the opposition is that those were just
convenient vehicles to realize their ultimate goal: power. Now that
they have it, they can’t be bothered with delivering what they
promised but they remain dependable when it comes to making a biting
remark or a poisonous accusation. Sounds like someone we know in
Washington, DC.
This article appeared in The Armenite on April 23, 2019.
William Bairamian is the founder of The Armenite. He holds degrees in
political science from Columbia University and UCLA where he focused
his studies on international relations and security policy,
respectively.
Mher Almasian contributed to this story.
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6- Armenian MPs call for trans activist to be burned alive
after historic speech
By Saeed Kamali Dehghan
Armenia’s first registered transgender woman has received death
threats after making a historic speech in her country’s national
assembly.
Lilit Martirosyan became the first member of her country’s lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community to take to
the parliamentary podium, speaking out against discrimination at a
session of its committee on human rights. A video of the speech has
been shared around the world.
Martirosyan expressed solidarity with a community that has been
“tortured, raped, kidnapped, subjected to physical violence, burned,
immolated, knifed, subjected to murder attempt, killed, emigrated, and
robbed”. She said transgender people in Armenia are subjected “to
stigma and discrimination in social, medical, legal, economic areas,
and … [are left] unemployed, poor and morally abandoned”.
The speech, two weeks ago, has since sparked a backlash in Armenia,
where homosexuality has been decriminalised but discrimination against
LGBTI people is rife. There have been anti-LGBTI protests in front of
the national assembly and verbal attacks made by some parliamentarians
have included calls for her to be burned alive.
The prime minister and the main opposition have tried to blame each
other for allowing Martirosyan’s speech.
“This was the first time in Armenia when a transgender woman spoke
from a high podium… of violence against transgender people,”
Martirosyan told the Guardian. “[A] transphobic man with a knife came
to the national assembly to announce that he would kill me and that
others like me must be killed, too … I have received many messages via
Facebook and email from various people telling that they will find and
kill me.
“In the post-revolutionary Armenia, hate has no place,” she added,
referring to popular protests last year that ushered in a new era
under Nikol Pashinyan, the former street politician who was elected
prime minister last May.
Martirosyan said the home addresses of several people who work for
Right Side, the transgender rights organisation she created in 2016,
have been leaked and that her own home address has been spread across
the internet by extremist groups who have threatened to “kill them if
we find them”. Nationalists, she said, have gathered outside her
house, raising Armenian flags.
The UN office in Armenia said it was “concerned about the recent rise
in hate speech and threats of violence against human rights and LGBTI
activists”. “Neither threats of violence nor any form of
discrimination against any group or individual can be tolerated,” read
a statement.
The EU echoed those concerns, saying “hate speech, including death
threats directed at Ms Lilit Martirosyan, her colleagues and the LGBTI
community as a whole … amount to discrimination prohibited under the
European convention on human rights and fundamental freedoms, to which
Armenia is party, and which is reflected in the constitution of
Armenia”.
Martirosyan, the first Armenian able to obtain a passport under a new
name in 2015, told parliament that at least 283 crimes against
transgender people had been registered up until last year. “For me, it
means there are 283 criminals in Armenia living next to me and you.
And who knows, maybe the 284th will commit their crime just tomorrow,”
she said.
Her speech was condemned by the chairperson of the parliamentary session.
Vartan Ghukasian, from the opposition BHK party, was quoted by Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty as saying “perverts” must be expelled from
Armenia. “Send them to Holland,” Ghukasian said. “We want … females to
be females and males to be males. You can’t mix female with male. It’s
shameful.”
Martirosyan said that she and many of her colleagues were in the
forefront of the velvet revolution because “we believed that our
rights would’ve been protected in new Armenia”.
Hayk Hakobyan, founder of the Rainbow Armenia Initiative, was among
several LGBTI activists attacked by a mob last year. Some were injured
by a crowd that threw stones at them.
Hakobyan has since been forced to leave the country, and is seeking
asylum in the Netherlands. He told the Guardian that Armenian society
is hostile. “I left Armenia because I was attacked and banished from
my home. I fled Armenia because there is no justice in my country.”
Hakobyan said there had been no positive development for the LGBTI
community since Pashinyan came to power.
“The corruption and arbitrary decisions within the juridical system
continue [to exist],” he said. “The people who attacked me and my
friends in August 2018 received a pardon for their crimes and are now
free criminals that promote the idea of violence against the LGBT
people. This [sets] a precedent where the people of Armenia can see
that violence against LGBT is [left] unpunished.”
This article appeared in The Guardian on April 26, 2019.
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