1 - Armenians Should Unite Against Turkey’s
And Azerbaijan’s Joint Attack on Artsakh
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Azerbaijan Reignites Attack on Artsakh Border, Killing
Soldiers and Civilians
3 - In SF, FBI Prepared to Investigate as Shots Fired at KZV School
4- CSUN Receives $3 Million Gift to Support Armenian Studies
5- USC Thornton Friends of Armenian Music Announces Scholarship Awards
6- Armenian Gov't Concerned About Coronavirus Resurgence
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1 - Armenians Should Unite Against Turkey’s
And Azerbaijan’s Joint Attack on Artsakh
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
A massive attack was launched against Artsakh by Azerbaijan with the
direct participation of Turkey and Islamic Jihadist mercenaries in the
early hours of Sept. 27, 2020.
The Azeri/Turkish side not only attacked Armenian military forces, but
also peaceful civilians in various villages and Stepanakert, the
capital of the Republic of Artsakh. Ominously, Turkish F-16 Air Force
jets operated in the war zone after several threatening remarks
against Armenia by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
As we write this article on Monday (Sept. 27), the battles continue.
We hope that France, Russia, and the United States will intervene and
stop the bloodshed. So far 370 Azeri soldiers, including
Lieutenant-Colonel Mehman Miraziz, have been killed. Mais Barkhudarov,
an Azeri Major General was wounded and captured by the Armenian
forces. In addition, 81 foreign Islamist Jihadist mercenaries have
been killed. Eighty four Armenian soldiers were killed and more than
100, mostly civilians, wounded. Turkey, which transported a large
number of these Islamist terrorists to Azerbaijan, has promised to pay
them thousands of dollars a month. It is embarrassing that Azerbaijan
and Turkey with their own huge militaries are too cowardly to use
their own soldiers and are importing mercenaries from Northern Syria.
Hopefully, these hired terrorists will suffer the same fate as the
Afghan Mujahideen and Chechen mercenaries who were brought to
Azerbaijan in the 1990’s to fight against the Armenian forces. Many of
them were killed in battle and the rest left Azerbaijan seeing the
cowardly behavior of Azeri soldiers. In addition, Armenian forces have
destroyed Azerbaijan’s four helicopters, 36 tanks and armored vehicles
and 27 drones, including those purchased from Israel and Turkey.
Russia and the United States issued statements calling for a ceasefire
and return to the negotiating table. Significantly, the U.S. State
Department announced that “participation in the escalating violence by
external parties would be deeply unhelpful and only exacerbate
regional tensions.” This was an indirect call to Turkey not to meddle
in the Artsakh conflict. However, the United States government should
go beyond mere words and sanction both Turkey and Azerbaijan by not
providing any weapons or foreign aid to either of them. In addition,
we are seeing the same meaningless statement urging both sides to
cease fire without condemning the party that started the attacks,
which is always Azerbaijan. I am certain that the United States and
Russia know full well who started the attacks.
I am sure most Armenians realize that at this critical time when the
lives of the populations of Armenia and Artsakh are at risk, they
should refrain from continuing their personal or partisan disputes.
This is no time to engage in internal disagreements. The priority is
to deter the common enemy. We should all rally around the government
of Armenia. Similarly, Diaspora Armenians should set aside their petty
disputes and join ranks. I know many Armenian-Americans have been
engaged in supporting the different candidates in the upcoming U.S.
presidential elections and Facebook is full of their heated comments.
I urge everyone to take a break from these political disputes and
rally around Armenia and Artsakh. We are facing much larger and more
powerful enemies, Azerbaijan and Turkey. Only our united effort and
smart tactics can protect us to avoid the reoccurrence of the
Genocide.
Even though I am not a military expert, I have some common sense
suggestions to Armenia’s leaders. This is not a partisan issue. I had
made the same suggestion to Armenia’s previous and current
governments, regrettably to no avail. I would like to remind our
political leaders in Armenia that they should immediately declare that
they will postpone all negotiations until such time that Azerbaijan
and Turkey stop firing on Armenia and Artsakh. How can one carry out
peaceful negotiations when the other side is holding a gun to your
head? Armenia should declare to the world that we are for peaceful
negotiations; however, it is not acceptable that Azerbaijan keeps
firing while supposedly negotiating. What kind of negotiation is that?
One can either fight or talk, but not do both at the same time. If the
negotiations are interrupted, Azerbaijan is the one that will be the
loser because that is the only way that it hopes to arrive at mutual
concessions. It is in Azerbaijan’s interest to stop firing and start
negotiating. The international community will only blame Azerbaijan
for the interruption of the peaceful negotiations. By not placing such
a reasonable condition on negotiations, Armenia is in fact is
encouraging Azerbaijan to continue firing on Armenia and Artsakh,
costing the lives of many young Armenian. No more negotiations unless
Azerbaijan stops these continuous attacks.
The other suggestion I have is that we should never tell the enemy
where we would or would not attack. After the spokesman of the Azeri
Defense Forces threatened in July that Azerbaijan could attack the
Armenian Nuclear power plant, I was dismayed to hear an Armenian
official state publicly that Armenia would never attack civilian
targets in Azerbaijan. There was no need to make such an announcement.
Let the enemy guess what you would or would not do in case of war. If
Armenia thought that by making such an announcement it will gain
praise from the international community, it is sadly mistaken. War is
not the time to play Mr. Nice Guy. The world respects only strength.
Rights and good behavior do not count. Let Azeris worry that Armenia
could attack their dams, pipelines, oil fields and civilian
populations. We do not need to announce whether we could attack such
targets or not. Azerbaijan had no hesitation attacking Stepanakert
this week, why should we announce that we have no interest in
retaliating on similar Azeri targets?
Finally, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan just announced that the
possibility of Armenia recognizing Artsakh’s independence is “on the
table and needs to be reviewed.” This is a welcome announcement.
Pashinyan already had announced in Stepanakert last year that “Artsakh
is Armenia, period.” The previous Armenian government had also
declared that if Azerbaijan attacks Artsakh, Armenia would then
recognize Artsakh’s independence. It is high time that Armenia take
such a decision which would be an appropriate response to the
Azeri/Turkish attack on Artsakh.
I urge all Armenians around the world to united and defend the
homeland in whatever way they can against its enemies, Azerbaijan and
Turkey.
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2- Azerbaijan Reignites Attack on Artsakh Border, Killing
Soldiers and Civilians
Early on the morning of Sunday, September 27, Azerbaijan’s military
attacked several positions along the Artsakh front; shelling was also
reported in Artsakh's capital Stepanakert for the first time since the
Artsakh Liberation War.
Turkey immediately supported the Azerbaijani attack, and reportedly
sent around 4,000 rebel fighters (of which 81 have been killed) from
Northern Syria to support Azerbaijan.
Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Artsakh President Arayik
Harutyunyan both declared martial law and general mobilizations in
Armenia and Artsakh.
Over 10,000 people contacted Armenia’s Ministry of Defense looking to
volunteer to be sent to the front. Several volunteer militias,
including from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, organized and
dispatched their own volunteers.
“As Commander in Chief, I have come today to say that I am ready to
die for the sake of our Motherland,” said Pashinyan. “We shall tell
the whole world that we are ready to die for our Motherland, we will
not cede a single millimeter of it. We shall win, we have no other
option.”
Pashinyan spoke by phone with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
said Moscow was following the situation very closely and that the
conflict had to be resolved through diplomacy.
As of Monday, September 28, the government of Artsakh had released the
names of 84 soldiers who were killed in the line of duty.
As of Monday, September 28, Armenian forces destroyed 27 drones, 4
helicopters, and 36 tank and infantry fighting vehicles. Ministry of
Defense spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan reported that there were 370
confirmed deaths on the Azerbaijani side.
Artsakh's Ombudsman Artak Beglaryan reported more than 100 wounded
civilians, as well as two civilian deaths in Artsakh.
The US Department of State urged “both sides to cease hostilities
immediately” and alluded to Turkey’s destabilizing role saying, “The
United States believes participation in the escalating violence by
external parties would be deeply unhelpful and only exacerbate
regional tensions.” The statement urged the sides to work with the
Minsk Group Co-Chairs to return to substantive negotiations as soon as
possible.
At an evening press briefing on September 27, President Donald Trump
said, "We're looking at it very strongly," he said. "We have a lot of
good relationships in that area. We'll see if we can stop it."
Following a previously scheduled meeting between the Catholicos of All
Armenians Karekin II and Pope Francis, the two issued a statement
stating that peace and stability can be reestablished only by
respecting the rights of Artsakh’s people and by ensuring justice.
Armenian websites, including the Asbarez Newspaper, were under
relentless cyber attacks by Azeri hackers.
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3 - In SF, FBI Prepared to Investigate as Shots Fired at KZV School
(Combined Sources)—Just over two months after being vandalized with
pro-Azerbaijani graffiti, San Francisco’s Krouzian-Zekarian
Vasbouragan Armenian school was again target of a pattern of hate
crimes, when the local police reported that shots were fired at the
school building over the weekend.
San Francisco police officers were patrolling the KZV Armenian School
at around 2:25 a.m. Saturday, September 18, when someone fired a
bullet that damaged the school’s sign. No one was injured by the
gunfire.
The officers were assigned to guard the Krouzian-Zekarian Vasbouragan
Armenian school after the campus was tagged with anti-Armenian
graffiti in July and the building adjacent to the St. Gregory the
Illuminator Armenian Church was set ablaze on Thursday. An arson
investigation is underway.
The officers immediately searched for the source of the gunshots, but
no suspects were located. They found a sign outside the school was
riddled with bullet holes. No one was injured in the shooting, police
said.
In a statement, the San Francisco Police Department said it had “taken
steps to increase the safety and security of the community.”
“However, we ask that the community remain alert and report anything
suspicious to the police,” the department said. “Investigators are
actively working to identify those responsible for the crimes and to
place them under arrest.”
Police said the officers who heard the gunshots near the school
Saturday “immediately searched for the source of the gunshots, but no
suspects were located.”
On Monday, September 21 a spokesperson for the FBI in San Francisco
said the agency was aware of the incidents and in “regular contact
with local authorities.”
“Should information come to light of a potential federal violation,
the FBI is prepared to investigate,” the agency said.
“We are more determined,” said Haig Baghdassarian of the Armenian
National Committee of America-Western Region. “We’ve gotten anecdotal
reports of individual community members having received
threats—Armenian-owned businesses and individuals.”
“I’m very upset and angry. I have a lot of nieces and nephews who come
here a lot of friends have kids who come here and this is getting
ridiculous,” said former student Saro Sarkisian. “I mean gunshots at a
school!”
“It’s reprehensible,” said Khatchig Tazian, a leader in the
Armenian-American community in San Francisco, who wants the FBI to
investigate.
“We would like to see federal help come into this. Because it is a
hate crime and it’s escalating as we speak,” said Tazian. “It started
with graffiti, then to arson, now it’s a shooting. The next one is
probably going to be somebody getting shot.”
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but several members
the Armenian-American community in San Francisco said they suspect it
has something to do with military tensions on Armenia’s border with
Azerbaijan.
Tazian said his community is offering a $25,000 reward for information
that leads to an arrest and conviction of those responsible for the
attacks. He is urging calm.
“We’ve been organized as a community for a long, long time. And we
don’t take bait like that. I’ll take this opportunity to remind
everybody in the Armenian-American community to just take a deep
breath and step back and make sure we don’t give into emotion and
don’t give into their violence. Because it will even escalate
further.”
Public officials including Gov. Gavin Newsom, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, and Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, who
is of Armenian descent herself, have condemned the violence against
the community in recent weeks.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin called the arson incident
“an outrage” and an act of “cowardly, hateful, criminal conduct.”
Hate crimes against the Armenian community are tragically on the rise,
and must not be tolerated, Member of the House of Representatives Adam
Schiff said.
“This week’s shooting near the Krouzian-Zekarian-Vasbouragan Armenian
School in San Francisco marks the third incident of hateful violence
against the Armenian community in California just this month.
Thankfully there were no injuries or deaths,” Schiff said on Facebook.
“We all stand together to condemn these vile and hateful attacks
against the community,” the Congressman noted.
A GoFundMe campaign to help the church with repair costs can be found
at https://www.gofundme.com/f/san-francisco-armenian-church-amp-community-offices.
Anyone with information about any of the cases is asked to contact to
police’s 24-hour anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or to text a tip
to TIP411 with “SFPD” at the beginning of the message.
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4- CSUN Receives $3 Million Gift to Support Armenian Studies
California State University, Northridge has received an anonymous $3
million gift to support its Armenian Studies Program and provide
scholarships to students.
A large portion of the gift, $2.5 million, has been designated for
scholarships, which will be available to any student interested in
studying or working with the Armenian community through advocacy,
humanitarian, cultural or philanthropic work. The remainder of the
money has been earmarked to support activities within the program.
“This gift emphasizes the power that education has to build bridges
and provide opportunities for people to explore new communities and
cultures, in this instance the Armenian community,” said CSUN
President Dianne F. Harrison. “CSUN educates more Armenian students
than any other university in the world outside of Armenia. This gift
will strengthen an already strong program that provides a foundation
of knowledge about Armenian culture and the impact Armenians and
Armenian Americans have, not just in California, but throughout the
world.”
Vahram Shemmassian, head of CSUN’s Armenian Studies Program, called
the anonymous gift “amazing, and example that there is still good in
the world.”
“The gift’s emphasis on scholarships invites people to learn about a
culture and people they may not know about,” Shemmassian said. “The
gift encourages comparative studies and intellectual exploration. If
you are majoring in religion, you study Armenia’s religions. If you
are studying the Holocaust, you can also learn about the Armenian
Genocide. If you are interested in music or film, you can explore the
Armenian aspect of these things. This amazing gift is inclusive, not
exclusive, of people of all backgrounds, and underscores the power of
a positive education to transform people and expand their
understanding of the world around them.”
CSUN’s Vice President for University Relations and Advancement and
President of the CSUN Foundation Robert Gunsalus said, “The wonderful
and anonymous donors behind this gift were motivated by an
appreciation for the Armenian culture and community, and helping the
people of our region. We are deeply grateful that they chose CSUN as
the instrument to animate those passions.”
Gunsalus went on to say, “The many students who will benefit from this
generous gift will make a positive impact on exponentially more
people, a lasting and splendid legacy for the donors and a genuine
honor for the university.”
The $3 million is the second anonymous gift to CSUN’s Armenian Studies
Program in the past year.
In October 2019, CSUN officials announced an anonymous gift of $2.1
million to support the program and the efforts of the special
collections and archives unit of CSUN’s library to preserve the
archives of Armenian families that date back to the pre-World War I
Ottoman period, including letters, books, clothes and jewelry.
Shemmassian said the gifts are a reflection of the positive reputation
CSUN’s Armenian Studies Program has for serious scholarship and its
connection to the Armenian community. He said he has worked in
partnership with the university’s development officials, particularly
with Suren Seropian, director of development for the College of
Humanities, to ensure that the community is aware of the program and
all it has to offer.
“Our mission is to create an atmosphere of tolerance and appreciation
for all people, and to foster serious scholarship about Armenia and
its people,” he said.
CSUN’s Armenian Studies Program, established in 1983, promotes the
study of the language and culture of Armenia and Armenians, and helps
prepare the next generation of scholars in the field. The program
offers students support, workshops, public lectures and outreach
programs. Through their work, faculty, staff and students in the
program strive to contribute to the scholarly analysis and
understanding of the challenges the Armenian people have faced at
home, in the Near East and the Caucasus, and the in the Diaspora.
Additionally, the program has launched, in partnership with CSUN’s
Liberal Studies Program’s Integrated Teacher Education Program, an
effort to prepare future public and private school educators who have
the skills to teach Armenian language and culture.
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5- USC Thornton Friends Of Armenian Music Announces Scholarship Awards
LOS ANGELES—The USC Thornton Friends of Armenian Music announced the
recipients for the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 scholarships. Each year,
scholarship awards are presented to students of Armenian descent
enrolled n the USC Thornton School of Music.
Irene Sassounian, President of the USC Thornton Friends of Armenian
Music, reported that in 1984 the organization established the USC
Friends of Armenian Music Scholarship Fund, thanks to the generous
donation of the late Mrs. Arhag Dickranian. Additionally, the
scholarship endowments have been augmented with the Daughters of
Vartan, Helen Mardigian, Audrey Babakhanian Gregor, Anne Mills, Seda
Marootian and Rose Ketchoyan Scholarship Award Endowments.
The Board of Directors are proud to recognize the following recipients
of the scholarship awards. The amounts of the scholarships vary.
Sara Babikian, Clasical Guitar, received the USC Friends of Armenian
Music Scholarship; the USC Friends of Armenian Music Rose Ketchoyan
Endowed Scholarship, and the USC Friends of Armenian Music Seda
Marootian Endowed Scholarship.
Bardy Minassian, Classical Guitar, received the USC Friends of
Armenian Music Audrey Babakhanian Gregor Endowed Music Scholarship;
and the USC Friends of Armenian Music Daughters of Vartan Endowed
Scholarship.
Liza Monasebian, Vocal Arts, received the USC Friends of Armenian
Music Helen Mardigian Endowed Scholarship.
In past years, these talented Armenian musicians and singers would be
showcased and presented at major concerts, music lectures, seminars,
symposiums, and other ongoing projects. During these difficult and
uncertain times due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Board of Directors
has postponed events featuring these talented artists until there are
operational changes and fewer restrictions.
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6- Armenian Gov't Concerned About Coronavirus Resurgence
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan pledged to again step up the
enforcement of safety and hygiene rules on September 24 in response to
a resurgence in coronavirus infections in Armenia which began about
two weeks ago.
Pashinyan expressed concern over the “worsening of the situation”
after the Armenian health authorities said that 374 people had tested
positive for COVID-19 in the previous 24 hours, the highest daily
number of new cases recorded since the beginning of August.
The Ministry of Health registered between 239 and 295 cases a day last
week, up from an average of roughly 150 cases reported earlier in
September. The number of cases had declined steadily and significantly
since the first half of July.
The resurgence is not as sharp as it may seem given a near doubling of
the daily number of coronavirus tests carried out across Armenia over
the last two weeks. Even so, there has been an increase in the
percentage of positive test results.
“Our position remains the same: we have to live with the coronavirus
and a lot depends here on the individual responsibility of each of
us,” Pashinyan said.
“Of course, administrative methods must also be applied very strictly,
and we have agreed that inspecting bodies and the police will step up
their oversight of compliance with the rules,” he said.
Wearing face masks in all public spaces—both indoors and outdoors—has
been mandatory in Armenia since June. The government kept this and
social distancing restrictions, mostly applicable to businesses, in
place when it lifted a coronavirus-related state of emergency on
September 11.
Health Minister Arsen Torosyan said that the renewed rise in
coronavirus cases began right after September 11. Torosyan blamed it
on the increased mobility and complacency of the population. He warned
that the reopening on September 15 of Armenian schools and
universities could accelerate the upward trend.
“We do not yet attribute these [higher] figures to the schools because
the schools were reopened ten days ago,” Torosyan told Pashinyan and
fellow cabinet members. “But if there is a more drastic increase
within the next week we will link that to the schools.”
“We are not just talking about transmission [of the disease] inside
schools,” he went on. “The schools and other educational
establishments are one of the most important factors behind our
population’s mobility.”
The minister also assured Pashinyan that about one-third of some 1,400
hospital beds currently set aside for COVID-19 patients remain vacant.
He said the number of such beds can be quickly doubled if need be.
According to the Ministry of Health, there were 3,748 active
coronavirus cases in Armenia as of September 24. Torosyan’s remarks
suggest that fewer than 1,000 infected persons were hospitalized.
Two dozen Armenian hospitals dealt with COVID-19 at the height of the
coronavirus crisis in June and early July. Only eight of them have
COVID-19 patients at present.
As of Monday, September 28, the Ministry of Health has recorded 49,400
coronavirus cases and 951 deaths.
The number of active cases stood at 4836; 43,613 have recovered.
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