1 - President of European Court Receives
Honorary Doctorate from Istanbul Univ.
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Despite Statements by Mayor Antaramian, Pres. Trump Visits
Embattled Kenosha
3 - Armenian Parliament Passes Bill on Coronavirus Restrictions
4- Armenian Eagle Scout Ani Hovanesian Makes History
with Space Camp Service Project
5- Dr. Simon J. Simonian Receives 2020 Sparkle Award
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1 - President of European Court Receives
Honorary Doctorate from Istanbul Univ.
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Robert Spano, President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR),
visited Turkey last week at the invitation of the Turkish Justice
Minister. Spano also met with Pres. Erdogan and gave a lecture at the
Turkish Justice Academy.
While the President of ECHR has the right to visit any country he
wishes, it is highly inappropriate that he accepts an Honorary
Doctorate in law from Istanbul University. Several prominent Turkish
human rights activists wrote lengthy columns criticizing Spano for his
visit and his acceptance of the Honorary Doctorate.
Former Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen stated that Spano “is not fit to
preside [over] the ECHR.” Cenkiz Aktar, a political scientist and
academic, called Spano’s visit “scandalous” and urged him to resign.
Exiled Turkish journalist Can Dundar wrote that Spano “destroyed the
30-year reputation of the ECHR in three days.” Ahval News quoted
several other critical comments from prominent Turks regarding the
unfortunate Spano’s visit to Turkey.
Mehmet Altan, one of those critics, is among the 192 professors of
Istanbul University who was fired at the instigation of Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Altan, jailed for his non-existent
membership in the banned Gulen religious group, filed a lawsuit
against Istanbul University to reverse his firing. Erdogan also
dismissed over 150,000 civil servants from state jobs and investigated
close to 600,000 Turkish citizens, arresting 100,000 of them under the
false pretext of belonging to the Islamist Gulen movement which was
accused of orchestrating the coup attempt against Erdogan in 2016.
The Turkish Ahval News website posted on August 31, 2020, an article
titled, “ECHR chief may receive controversial honorary doctorate from
Istanbul University.”
Ahval reported that Altan, in an open letter addressed to Spano and
published on the website of Turkish journalism platform P24, urged him
not to accept the Turkish invitation. “I do not know how much pride
there is to be an honorary member of a university that condemns
hundreds of lecturers to unemployment and poverty by unjustly
expelling them from school,” Altan wrote.
Altan told Spano: “The University from which you will receive a
doctorate is included as the ‘defendant institution’ in the lawsuit of
academics, like me, who were dismissed by decree…. These cases are
still ongoing and it is likely that they will come before the ECHR,
which you preside over.”
Altan continued: “On March 2018, the second section of ECHR, presided
over by you, set a precedent in universal law and ruled that my right
to personal liberty and security and my freedom of _expression_ had been
violated. Turkey was convicted…. Ergin Ergul, who was appointed on
behalf of Turkey to that case and was the only judge dissenting, put
forward such arguments that you wrote ‘a dissenting vote’ against a
dissenting vote, for the first time in the history of ECHR, if I am
not mistaken. And the other members followed you.”
Ahval reported that there were over 60,000 individual complaints at
the ECHR for violations of rights and freedoms in Turkey.
Yavuz Aydin, who was also dismissed from his profession along with
4,500 judges and prosecutors, wrote an article titled, “ECHR president
faces a test of honor in Turkey,” which was published in Ahval on
Sept. 2, 2020. Aydin wrote: “President Spano is certainly aware of the
deterioration of rule of law in Turkey. As a man of honor who has been
adjudicating on Turkey-related files at the ECHR for years, the
purpose of his visit cannot be thought of as anything other than
openly and courageously shouting out facts in the faces of government
authorities.”
Aydin continued: “The ECHR president knows very well that the
government in Turkey translated to one-man rule by President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan since the constitutional amendment of 2017. As openly
criticized by the Venice Commission, Spano knows that the separation
of powers and judicial independence no longer exist in Turkey. Besides
this, he cannot be unaware of Resolution 2156(2017) of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which downgraded
Turkey to the league of countries under monitoring status for the
first time in European history. This decision implies that Turkey no
longer meets the famous Copenhagen Criteria, and thus cannot be
regarded as eligible for accession negotiations with the EU [European
Union].”
Aydin then made a series of suggestions that he hoped Spano would
follow during his visit to Turkey:
— Call on Erdogan to return to democracy and restore the rule of law
in the country.
— Remind the Turkish leaders of the decision to remove from the
Turkish Council of Judges and Prosecutors their observer status in the
European Network of Councils for the Judiciary. He should also remind
the candidate judges at the Turkish Judiciary Academy [TJA] why the
European Judicial Training Network expelled the TJA from observer
membership status in 2016.
— Tell them that the existing judges as well as the 10,000 new judges
appointed after the coup attempt are often politically biased in
applying the law, and call on them to ignore political pressure from
the Palace, Constitutional Court and other high courts.
— Remind them that for the first time in history Turkey was found in
breach of Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
— Tell the leaders in Turkey that they should immediately release the
hundreds of judges still in solitary confinement and reinstate all
4,000 of their purged colleagues.
Aydin urged Spano “to decline the honorary doctorate even before
stepping onto Turkish soil, conveying a very strong message to all
parties before meeting with them in person. Otherwise, the good will
exerted through Spano’s visit would not only be wasted, but serve as a
trump card for the government and Erdogan, who will use the gesture as
a sign of appraisal and legitimization of the illegalities taking
place in the country under his rule.”
Regrettably, Spano ignored all the good advice provided by Turkish
human rights activists and thus undermined his own reputation as well
as that of the European Court of Human Rights.
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2- Despite Statements by Mayor Antaramian, Pres. Trump Visits
Embattled Kenosha
By Brian Naylor
(NPR)—President Trump visited Kenosha, Wis., a city roiled by unrest
following the police shooting of Jacob Blake last month in a state
seen as crucial to Trump’s reelection prospects in November.
Trump on Tuesday, September 1 visited an emergency management center,
met with police and toured a section of the city damaged by rioting
that followed the shooting of the 29-year-old Black man.
Trump said Monday that he did not plan to meet with Blake’s family
because he said such a meeting would include the family’s attorney.
Asked again whether he would meet with them on Tuesday before boarding
Air Force One, Trump said, “I don’t know yet. We’ll see.”
Two people were killed during the subsequent protests against racism
and police brutality last week. Seventeen-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse
has been charged with six criminal counts, including first-degree
intentional homicide. Rittenhouse, who is white, is a staunch law
enforcement supporter.
Trump appeared to defend Rittenhouse on Monday, saying, “He was trying
to get away from them, I guess, it looks like.”
While an investigation into the shooting is ongoing, Trump said, “I
guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed.”
Trump did not elaborate on what kind of trouble Rittenhouse may have
been in.
As for the police shooting Blake multiple times at close range, which
left Blake paralyzed from the waist down, Trump has avoided directly
condemning law enforcement actions. In an interview with Fox’s Laura
Ingraham on Monday, Trump compared the police shooting to a mistake in
a golf tournament.
“Shooting the guy in the back many times,” he said, “I mean, couldn’t
you have done something different, couldn’t you have wrestled him? You
know, I mean, in the meantime, he might’ve been going for a weapon.
You know there’s a whole big thing there, but they choke. Just like in
a golf tournament, they miss a 3-foot putt.”
Trump, who has been campaigning on a “law and order” theme, blamed
local officials for the unrest in Kenosha and other cities this
summer. Demonstrators across the country have been protesting police
violence and systemic racism.
Wisconsin’s governor and Kenosha’s mayor urged Trump to put off his
visit, saying the city needs time to heal.
Mayor John Antaramian said it was "too soon" for President Trump or
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to be visiting the city.
“Realistically, from our perspective, our preference would have been
for him not to be coming at this point in time,” Antaramian told NPR’s
Weekend Edition on Sunday, August 30. “All presidents are always
welcome and campaign issues are always going on. But it would have
been, I think, better had he waited to have for another time to come.”
Before Trump visited Kenosha, he said of Antaramian: "I saw last night
where these radical anarchists were trying to get into the mayor's
house and lots of bad things were happening to this poor, stupid, very
foolish mayor. How he could be mayor I have no idea, but all he has to
do is call and within 10 minutes, their problem will be over. As you
know, they have to call us. They have to call and request help."
Trump claimed that protesters descended on the Mayor's house, but
Antaramian said the opposite in a statement rebutting the claim. In a
statement, Antaramian said: "I want to dispel the President’s
statement that angry mobs were trying to get into my house last night.
Nothing of the sort happened. The statement in the President’s video
is completely false."
Speaking to NPR, Antaramian said the situation in Kenosha was “not the
situation, I think, that people perceive — that the people in Kenosha
are rioting … they are protesting and absolutely have every right to
protest.” He said the city supports peaceful protest, but not the
“damage and destruction.”
“Peaceful protests are not a problem,” Antaramian said. “Our biggest
problem really did come from people coming from outside the area and
causing a great deal of damage and destruction,” he said. Antaramian
said that protests in Kenosha had been very peaceful, with a prayer
vigil led by Blake’s family just a week after he was shot seven times
in front of his three children by a police officer. Blake was left
paralyzed from the waist down, sparking the protests.
The demonstrations turned deadly on Tuesday, August 25, when a
17-year-old from Illinois allegedly shot and killed two protesters and
injured a third. The teen, Kyle Rittenhouse, was arrested Wednesday
and now faces six criminal counts, including homicide.
In a video recorded before the shootings, a person who appears to be
Rittenhouse described himself as part of a local militia whose job was
to protect Kenosha businesses. In the aftermath of the shooting,
police in Kenosha have faced criticism for not stopping Rittenhouse
sooner. “The police chief does have my confidence,” Antaramian said.
“But I think the other part of it is, is that you have to remember at
the time that this was going on, officers were responding to shots
fired all over the area. And I don’t believe they understood at the
time what was happening with actually someone down at the moment.”
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3 - Armenian Parliament Passes Bill on Coronavirus Restrictions
The National Assembly approved on Friday, September 4 a bill allowing
the Armenian government to continue to enforce coronavirus-related
safety rules and restrictions after lifting a state of emergency
declared in March.
The bill passed in the first reading by 80 votes to 28 involves
amendments to several Armenian laws.
They empower relevant authorities to impose nationwide or local
lockdowns, seal off communities hit by COVID-19 outbreaks, close
Armenia’s borders and isolate people infected with the disease. The
authorities can also ban or restrict public gatherings in the country.
The government drafted the bill to avoid extending the state of
emergency again on September 11.
The government lifted the ban last month. It at the same time set
strict physical distancing requirements for organizers and
participants of rallies.
The government used the state of emergency to impose a nationwide
lockdown in late March. It began easing lockdown restrictions already
in mid-April.
With the number of coronavirus cases in the country growing rapidly in
the following weeks, the authorities put the emphasis on the
enforcement of safety rules requiring Armenians to practice social
distancing and wear face masks in all public areas.
The daily number of new coronavirus cases has shrunk by more than half
since mid-July. Citing this downward trend, the government decided
late last month to reopen universities and schools on September 1 and
September 15 respectively.
As of Monday, August 24, Armenia has recorded a total of 44,845
COVID-19 cases. A total of 40,121 of these patients have since
recovered while 3,824 remain active.
The death toll as a direct result of complications from COVID-19 stands at 900.
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4- Armenian Eagle Scout Ani Hovanesian Makes History
with Space Camp Service Project
Hoping to become recognized among the historic first group of female
Eagle Scouts, Ani Hovanesian, a 10th grader at Laguna Beach High
School and St. Mary Armenian Church Sunday School in Costa Mesa, chose
her required service project to focus on teaching critical thinking
and problem solving skills to elementary age kids in a fun Space Camp
pilot program to benefit participants of the Boys & Girls Club Laguna
Beach.
“Along with several other girls in Troop 35, I’m really excited at the
possibility of being among the world’s first female Eagle Scouts.
Putting on a space camp as my eagle project made perfect sense for me.
I was lucky enough to go to NASA’s space camp in Huntsville, Alabama,
home of the Saturn 5 rocket that went to the moon. It was incredible
to be on site where history was created and to learn from challenging
projects all related to my love of science. I wanted to share this
experience in some way with kids in Laguna who can’t go to space
camp.”
The Boys & Girls Club, which has a long-standing STEM (science,
technology, engineering, and math) initiative, thought Space Camp
program would be perfectly aligned. Boys & Girls Club CEO, Pam Estes
said, “Ani’s Space Camp was the timely and a perfect gift to our Club
members at the Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach. Creating excitement
about science and engineering among our kiddos, equipping them with
problem-solving skills, and modeling volunteerism are important
priorities.”
Hovanesian first gained approval for the project from Scouts BSA, the
organization formerly known as Boy Scouts, which began admitting girls
to the organization in February 2019. She first led her fellow Scouts
from Troop 35 in practicing the lesson plans and assembling kits of
materials for the students. Next, over the last week in July, the
Scouts under Ani’s leadership did a trial run of 4 days of camp for
Cub Scouts, who are of similar age to the intended participants at the
Boys & Girls Club.
All classes were conducted live and in-person but socially distanced
outdoors at local parks with no more than ten participants, and
everyone wearing masks and using lots of hand sanitizer. Each of the
four classes had three activities, like the design and building of
rockets powered by air or Alka-Seltzer, designing zero-gravity
astronaut living quarters, and creating a simulated “Mars Rover”,
which competed in speed and distance traveled. One experiment involved
constructing heat shields of different materials, like aluminum foil
and copper mesh. Each “engineer’s” design was tested under adult
supervision with a blow torch to see how long the marshmallow
“astronauts” could survive. Through the messy and fun modules,
participants learned about the engineering process, magnetism,
aerodynamics, propulsion, acceleration, heat capacity and even how
moon craters were created. All activities were developed by Ani’s
experiences at Space Camp and from ideas on the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory website. One participant, Malachite Campbell said, “The
rover was my favorite part because I could test out different wheels
to see what would work in the grass or pavement.”
After trying out the programs on Cub Scouts with her helpers, fellow
Scouts May Chapman and Chloe Duong, Ani then held four classes for
Boys & Girls Club live and in person just after its re-opening in
mid-August. One of her youngest campers, Kindergartener Phoenix
Aguilera remarked, “My favorite part was making beautiful rockets! I
liked how the people in space live and how fast rockets fly. The best
part was all of the fun experiments!” Yaretsi Mendoza, who directs the
STEM initiative for the Boys & Girls Club expressed her excitement
over continuing the Space Camp program. “It was a wonderful program
that got the Kinders all the way to the third graders excited and
looking forward to the following day! I cannot wait to roll these
projects out to more kids at other Boys and Girls Club locations and
throughout the school year.”
Asked about the historic significance of Ani potentially being among
the first female Eagle Scouts, she answered, “I think what is
significant is lighting the spark in kids to love science for years to
come.” She jokingly continued, “It’s really not hard. It’s just rocket
science.”
More information about ScoutsBSA and Troop 35 can be found at www.lb35.org.
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5- Dr. Simon J. Simonian Receives 2020 Sparkle Award
Simon J. Simonian was among the first five honorees to receive the
Sparkle Award—for the embodiment of aging as a celebration of
cumulative wisdom, life of scientific medical research for the
betterment of human kind and the freedom to go for it—from jointly The
Los Angeles Oasis for Wise and Healthy Aging Committee and the Love of
Aging Committee.
Ms. Candace Shivers, The Oasis Events and Activities Manager of Wise
and Healthy Aging introduced Simon J. Simonian—a Harvard University
alumnus and professor, who is a globally respected surgeon, research
scientist, innovator, educator, spiritual and evolutionary growth
leader.
From 1951 to 2006 for 55 years, with his collaborators he has
innovated six major medical fields.
In London University, the creation of a vaccine for the eradication of
smallpox, the first and only disease eradicated in history, saving
five million lives each year permanently. It is recognized as the most
important achievement in the history of medicine and public health;
Simonian has been nominated three times for a Nobel Prize in Medicine.
In Harvard University, the creation of an agent of immunosuppression
which made organ transplantation successful, saving lives; his senior
collaborator received the 1990 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
In the University of Chicago, the creation of an agent of
immunotherapy for targeting cancer cells, saving lives. At the Vein
Institute in Washington, D.C., improvement in venous and lymphatic
vascular diseases, saving lives.
For relieving pain and suffering and saving the lives of eight million
people each year permanently. Already, since 1977, approximately 340
million lives—equal to the total population of the United States—have
been saved.
From 2009 to the present, with collaborators he is working to form a
World Union for the expected, desirable and deserving justice and
peace for all.
The Sparkle Award ceremony was conducted through Zoom, on August 21,
2020. The occasion was the First Annual Global Celebration of Aging
and World Senior Citizen Day. There were worldwide participants, who
spoke from Asia, Australia, Europe, Canada, North and South America.
When asked what were the enjoyments of living longer, Simon J.
Simonian said: his wonderful wife Arpi of 55 years; their three great
sons and three daughters-in-law; and their eight grandchildren. He
offered his profound gratitude to his parents, three sisters and many
teachers; the 2,000 medical students he trained now practicing as
valuable doctors; and the 500 doctors he trained now practicing as
worthy surgeons and researchers. He expressed his profound
appreciation to his collaborators for saving eight million lives each
year in perpetuity. His described his expectation with his
collaborators for the creation of a World Union, completely
collaborative with supranational laws—to make the world safe,
non-violent and free of weapons—while satisfying the social and
economic needs of all people with cooperative continual evolutionary
betterment and growth.
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