1 - The People in Armenia Have Spoken
Whether We Like It or Not!
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- After Only 49% of Electorate Casts Vote,
Pashinyan’s ‘Civil Contract’ Party Nets 54%
Kocharian’s ‘Armenia’ Bloc, with nearly 21%,
Challenges Election Results
3 - Hye Hopes Completes Two Sessions of
Educational Programs for Displaced Artsakh Youth
4- Varak and Anomeh Zakarian ‘Leaving a Mark’ with Custom Coasters
5- Azerbaijan Sentences Lebanese-Armenian
Vicken Euljekjian to 20 Years
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1 - The People in Armenia Have Spoken
Whether We Like It or Not!
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
The snap parliamentary elections have been tumultuous. A lot has been
written and said about the candidates in these elections as to who
should lead Armenia in light of the recent devastating war, dismal
condition of the people, and threats against the territorial integrity
of Armenia and Artsakh.
Nikol Pashinyan came to power three years ago. The overwhelming
majority of the Armenian people, both in Armenia and the Diaspora,
fervently welcomed him, reacting to their dislike of the former
leaders. However, Pashinyan did not justify the people’s enthusiastic
support and their expectations. Many were disappointed with his inept
performance both during and before the war. Even then, the antagonism
for the former leaders was so intense and the prospect of their
returning to power was so feared that most voters either stayed out of
the election or voted for Pashinyan. What was really surprising is not
so much Pashinyan’s landslide victory, winning almost 54 percent of
the votes cast, but the fact that the coalition led by former Pres.
Robert Kocharian was able to receive as high as 21 percent of the
votes.
Nevertheless, the people in Armenia have spoken. We should respect
their choice whether we agree with them or not. Diaspora Armenians do
not have a vote in Armenia’s elections. Not even the citizens of
Armenia who live outside the country can vote unless they go back home
on Election Day. So, this is a choice made by those who live on the
ground in Armenia. They will rightly bear the immediate impact of
their choices, good or bad. In my opinion, Pashinyan does not possess
the ability to lead a country with so many problems. Rather than
finding solutions, he has regrettably made matters worse by his own
incompetence and that of his advisors and ministers.
Regrettably, a lot of violent, vile, hateful and insulting words were
said during the campaign, particularly by Prime Minister Pashinyan. It
was unbelievable that he would wave a hammer during the campaign
speeches and threaten to use it on his opponents after the election.
He repeatedly threatened to lay them on the asphalt and plaster them
to the wall! Those are words that no self-respecting leader should use
in addressing his people, whether they support him or not. Pashinyan
also told the people repeatedly that he will change his
previously-described “velvet revolution” to a “steel revolution.” It
is amazing to me that a man who came to power preaching tolerance and
advocating democratic principles has turned into a tyrant who is
threatening violence towards his own political opponents. Such hostile
language is more appropriate to be used against Armenia’s foreign
enemies.
I just hope that after suffering from the violence of our enemies,
Armenians do not resort to commit violence on one another due to
political disagreements. There should be a civilized discourse and
polite _expression_ of opinions.
The other strange phenomenon we encountered is the government’s
announcement prior to the election that there were 2,578,678 eligible
voters. This is a very strange figure given the fact that the
country’s population is around 2.9 million. If one subtracts the
700,000 youngsters under the age of 18 who cannot vote, the number of
the eligible voters should be much less than the announced figure. The
only valid explanation is that hundreds of thousands of Armenians who
permanently left the country many years ago are still registered as
voters. The inflated number of eligible voters is the reason that the
election results wrongly show that a little less than 50 percent of
them voted. It is high time that the government update its voting
registers to eliminate the large number of people who have left the
country for good. Since voters need to have a domestic address, those
who have moved out of the country should no longer be eligible to
vote. Furthermore, cleansing the voting registers would eliminate
election fraud as locals would be unable to vote for those who have
left the country, as it has happened in the past.
As expected, there were a lot of accusations of voter fraud resulting
in the losing sides rejecting to accept the outcome of the election.
We need to wait for the courts to make their determination before we
jump to any conclusions.
Pashinyan’s opponents had urged him to leave office and not let his
government oversee the elections, fearing an undue influence over the
electoral process. However, Pashinyan refused to do so and remained as
a caretaker Prime Minister. As a result, he committed two serious
violations even before the first vote was cast. He started campaigning
several weeks before the legally authorized start of the campaign and
used the resources of the government during his campaign trips, which
is also illegal.
A sharply divided nation before the election became even more split
after the election. Rather than advancing democracy in the country,
successive elections have caused more instability in the country
distancing Armenia further from any semblance of a democratic country.
There is so much hatred among Armenians that one does not have to
worry about Armenia’s enemies. Regrettably, Armenians have become
their own worst enemy. It is incumbent on all Armenians, regardless of
their political preferences, to lower the degree of hostility,
especially in social media, and learn to express their disagreements
without being rude and hostile. The onus is on the leader of the
country to set an example of tolerance and urge everyone to be more
civilized towards one another, instead of inflaming the passions and
using threatening language. After all, we are all the sons and
daughters of the same nation and we should put our collective
interests and the survival of the nation ahead of any other issue.
Now that two parliamentary opposition groups are about to occupy one
third of the seats in the Armenian Parliament, the discussions and
disputes, no matter how sharp, should be transferred from the street
to the halls of the legislature.
Finally, regardless of whom we supported in the elections, we should
not lose sight of the fact that the people of Armenia and Artsakh are
in a destitute situation, particularly after the recent war, and we
should do whatever we can to support them. We should also try to help
our leaders, even if we disagree with them. I hope, in return,
Armenia’s leaders will welcome our extended hand and be willing to
listen to the advice offered to them. We wish our people the best and
pledge to do everything in our power to stand by them so they do not
think they are abandoned to their tragic fate.
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2- After Only 49% of Electorate Casts Vote,
Pashinyan’s ‘Civil Contract’ Party Nets 54%
Kocharian’s ‘Armenia’ Bloc, with nearly 21%, Challenges
Election Results
(Combined Sources)—On Sunday, June 20, some 49.4 percent of the
registered voters participated in snap parliamentary elections, which,
based on preliminary results, gave Acting Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan a significant edge in the votes.
Based on preliminary results published by Armenia’s Central Electoral
Commission, with 100 percent of the 1,281,174 votes cast counted,
53.92 percent (687,251 votes) of the electorate voted for Pashinyan’s
Civil Contract Party while the Armenia (Hayastan) Alliance, led by
former president Robert Kocharian and including the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation, garnered 21.04 percent (268,165) of the
votes.
The “I Have Dignity” (Pativ Ounem) bloc led by another of Armenia’s
former presidents, Serzh Sargsyan garnered 5.23 percent (66,231
votes); the Prosperous Armenia Party, led by businessman Gagik
Tsarukyan, received 3.96 percent (50,414) of the votes.
According to Armenia’s election laws, parties need five percent of the
votes to enter the parliament, while election alliances need to clear
seven percent of votes for seat in the legislature.
On the morning of Monday, June 21, local time, Caretaker Prime
Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan tweeted that his Civil Contract
party will have a constitutional majority in the newly-elected
parliament and will form a government he will lead.
“Thus, according to the preliminary results of the elections as
published by the Central Electoral Commission, in the newly-elected
parliament the Civil Contract party will have a constitutional
majority (at least 71 MPs out of 105) and will form a government led
by me,” Pashinyan tweeted.
Vote counting began in Armenia late on Sunday, June 20 after polls
closed in tightly contested general elections. Voting was largely
peaceful but there were allegations of government pressure on voters
and harassment of opposition activists. There were virtually no
reports of violent incidents inside polling stations across the
country.
In the provincial town of Goris and two nearby villages,
representatives of major opposition alliances led by former Presidents
Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sargsyan claimed that soldiers serving
there were told by their commanders to vote for Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party.
“They stand a bit far away from the polling booths and all drop the
same ballots on orders,” an opposition proxy at a Goris polling
station told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
The Armenian Defense Ministry denied that such orders were issued to
soldiers in Syunik or any other part of the country.
Armen Khachatrian, a Civil Contract figure who has represented a
Syunik constituency in Armenia’s outgoing parliament, also dismissed
the allegations made by Kocharian’s Hayastan bloc and Sargsyan’s Pativ
Ounem alliance.
Khachatrian accused the two opposition forces of trying to buy votes
before and during the elections. He said that more of their members
will be prosecuted in the coming days.
In another Syunik town, Sisian, police raided on Sunday morning
Hayastan’s local campaign headquarters. Artur Sargsian, the Sisian
mayor affiliated with Hayastan, said they looked for fake ballots but
did not find any. Nevertheless, he said, they confiscated a computer
and detained two local campaign activists of the Kocharian-led bloc.
The bloc condemned the police actions, saying that they are aimed at
“paralyzing” the work of its Syunik campaigners.
In Yerevan, law-enforcement authorities detained late on Saturday
several supporters of Hayastan and the opposition Prosperous Armenia
Party (BHK) on suspicion of distributing or receiving vote bribes.
The office of Armenia’s human rights defender, Arman Tatoyan,
expressed concern over those detentions. It said one of the detainees
told office representatives that police officers verbally abused her
and threatened to prosecute her if she does not confess to vote
buying.
Sargsyan’s Pativ Ounem bloc said that dozens of its members have been
rounded up in recent days.
The ex-president claimed that “the entire law-enforcement system” is
harassing the bloc seen as one of the main opposition election
contenders. Speaking to journalists after voting at a Yerevan polling
station, he condemned “illegal arrests” of its members and “illegal
searches conducted” at Pativ Ounem offices in various parts of
Armenia.
The Armenian police said, meanwhile, that they received 57 reports of
election-related violations and launched preliminary inquiries into 20
of them as of 4 p.m. local time.
No serious irregularities were reported in Armenia’s second largest
city of Gyumri. Election observers and opposition proxies interviewed
by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service at two local polling stations said they
did not witness any wrongdoing.
On the morning of Monday June 21, local time, Pashinyan claimed
victory when only about 225,000 of the votes were counted and
proclaimed his “steel mandate,” as the road map for Armenia’s future.
Pashinyan escalated his rhetoric regarding the “steel mandate” this
week, brandishing a hammer during each of his campaign rallies. In the
town of Goris in Syunik, he described local politicians who have
called for his resignation since the end of the war as “rusty nails”
that must be taken out. “With this mandate we will break their [bank]
accounts, destroy their firms and shove each of these criminal
upstarts into holes on your behalf,” he said while waving a hammer in
the air.
Throughout the campaign, Pashinyan has reiterated his expectation that
his Civil Contract Party will receive “at least 60 percent of the
vote,” guaranteeing its mandate to rule and uproot opposition
political forces that “want to wage a civil war in Armenia.”
Kocharian’s Armenia Alliance issued a statement on Monday local time
saying that the published results of the parliamentary elections “are
highly controversial and do not inspire confidence” and challenged the
election results.
“They are in stark contrast to the various manifestations of public
life we have witnessed over the past eight months, to all the results
of public opinion polls, including international, and finally, to
common sense,” said a statement issued by the bloc.
“The very large gatherings by opposition forces during the campaign,"
as pictured above, "the apparent small number of supporters of the
regime, the crisis of confidence in the country, indicated the
existence of completely different public sentiments,” added the
statement.
“The most serious reason for the lack of trust is the hundreds of
alarms sounded from different polling stations on the actual election
day, which attest to a systematic, pre-planned falsification of the
election results,” claimed the Armenia Alliance.
“Taking the aforementioned aspects into consideration, the Armenia
(Hayastan) bloc calls for a serious and substantiated investigation
into the registered alleged violations, which we have immediately
undertaken,” said bloc's announcement.
“Since all the problematic matters have not been comprehensively
explained and the doubts have not been dispelled, the Armenia bloc
does not accept the election results,” said the statement by the
Armenia bloc, which was published on its Facebook page.
The snap parliamentary elections were organized to resolve the
political crisis that has consumed the nation in the aftermath of the
2020 Artsakh War. A historic 22 political parties and four political
alliances including all of the country’s current and former leaders,
vied for 105 seats in the National Assembly.
After Kocharian and Sargsyan both rejected Pashinyan’s invitation to
participate in a televised debate, Kocharian quipped on June 5 that
rather than a debate he was ready to partake in a duel “with any type
of weapon.” Three days later, during a Civil Contract Party rally,
Pashinyan raged, “I will destroy you (Kocharian) with my words, my
heart, my mind and the people’s support. Say the date and place, take
whatever weapon you want, and I will come with the people, and we will
slaughter you in a political sense.” Throughout the fiery speech, he
repeated, “you are nothing,” “you are not a man” and “you are nobody.”
Pashinyan and Sargsyan particularly have engaged in a war of words
throughout the campaign, hurling retaliatory insults at one another
during campaign rallies. Pashinyan provoked widespread anger when he
said during a rally in Armavir village on June 7 that Armenian POWs
“will forgive us for being held captive for one or two more months,
but they will not forgive us for conceding the independence and
sovereignty of our country for their freedom.” The following day
Sargsyan challenged Pashinyan to deliver his son to Azerbaijan in
exchange for the freedom of “20 to 25 POWs.” Pashinyan accepted the
challenge, announcing that he had instructed the “relevant state
bodies to officially communicate to the Azerbaijani side” that his son
is “prepared to go to Baku as a hostage provided that all of our
prisoners are repatriated.” Pashinyan’s 21-year-old son Ashot
Pashinyan also declared that he is prepared to participate in the
swap. Azerbaijani officials have not publicly responded to the offer.
On June 12, 15 more Armenian POWs were repatriated in a deal
negotiated by the governments of Georgia and the US, the European
Union and the OSCE. Armenia apparently provided Azerbaijan with maps
of 97,000 landmines in the Aghdam region as part of the exchange. The
agreement represents the first exchange of POWs since the end of the
war conducted without official Russian participation. According to
Armenian officials, at least 200 POWs remain in Azerbaijani captivity,
while Azerbaijan only admits to its detention of 62 POWs, one of whom,
Viken Euljekian, was sentenced this week to 20 years in prison on
terrorism charges.
The rhetoric embraced by the candidates running in the snap
parliamentary elections in Armenia has been condemned by local
political leaders and international organizations. “How can the
country’s incumbent and former leaders use such rhetoric?” Bright
Armenia Party leader Edmon Marukyan asked reporters. “The situation
this country is in right now is such that hating each other and making
plans to destroy each other is a luxury.” Freedom House, for its part,
tweeted its concern regarding the “violent rhetoric used by Armenian
politicians in this election period.” “These actions drive destructive
polarization and hate speech as the country prepares for historic
parliamentary elections,” the organization wrote.
Armenia’s religious leadership, including Catholicos Karekin II and a
collection of bishops, also censured the “hate speech, defamatory and
offensive expressions, cursing, threats of violence and revenge”
spread during the campaign, calling on “all political forces,
especially the ruling party, to refrain from inappropriate speech and
behavior” that might lead to violent unrest. The Mother See of Holy
Etchmiadzin lambasted Pashinyan after he directed insults at allegedly
corrupt clergymen during a campaign rally, sustaining that the PM
voices “unfair accusations against the Armenian Church.” “The attitude
of the incumbent authorities towards the Church and the
national-spiritual value is known to our people,” Etchmiadzin wrote in
a statement.
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3 - Hye Hopes Completes Two Sessions of
Educational Programs for Displaced Artsakh Youth
KAPAN, ARMENIA – Hye Hopes, Inc. is a nonprofit based in Burbank,
Calif., established in November of 2020, with the mission of providing
critical and essential educational resources along with teacher
professional development and social emotional services for the
forcibly displaced youth of Artsakh living in the Syunik region.
Hye Hopes, Inc. announced the successful completion of its first and
second sessions in Kapan, the capital of the Syunik region on March
12, 2021 and May 28, 2021 respectively. The two 8-week educational
programs included over 200 students in two schools from 2nd through
11th grades. Displaced students from Hadrut, Jabrayil and Shushi
arrived in Kapan throughout the implementation of the Hye Hopes’
program and Hye Hopes was able to provide educational assistance to
the displaced children.
The Hye Hopes initiative provided over 60 laptops for both students
and teacher stations for schools N1 & N3 in Kapan and School N1 in
Meghri. In addition to providing computers, Hye Hopes donated
projectors, printers and robotic kits to support the students with
remote synchronized instruction by teachers from California and
throughout the United States of America.
The online classes included art, mathematics, python, coding, English,
science, physics and electronics/robotics. The students were presented
with certificates of completion upon the culmination of the second
session. “The students showed advanced skills in subject matter and
were quick to learn how to use the technology they were given,” stated
Hye Hopes Vice President of Educational and Program Affairs, Seran
Krikorian. Fifth grade volunteer teacher, Ani Yeghiyan stated, “I
could sense how eager they [the students] were to learn and were so
excited about answering questions in class. It is an incredible
experience getting to interact with and getting to know the students
in Kapan and I am grateful to Hye Hopes for the opportunities I’ve had
as a teacher.”
On his most recent trip to the Syunik region, Hye Hopes founder Greg
Krikorian, visited over 25 schools in the cities of Kapan, Meghri,
Goris and Sisian in order to provide a needs assessment and help
develop strategic areas for Hye Hopes to best continue supporting the
Armenian youth. “Our teachers, staff, parents and students are
grateful for Hye Hopes during challenging times for Armenia. Our
students were eager and excited to work on the new laptops, which for
many of them is their first time working on Lenovo & HP Laptops,” said
Lusine Zarkaryan, Principal of N1 School in Kapan.
The Hye Hopes program provides training for volunteer teachers as well
as teachers in Armenia in areas of remote learning such as setting up
Zoom and Google Classrooms and also provides training for Mental
Health and Social Emotional assistance. “The first two sessions were a
great success for distance learning, social-emotional support for
students, as well as staff training in Kapan. Our volunteers and
teachers provided social-emotional support for students through
different activities designed to foster self-awareness, resilience and
other qualities necessary for healthy development and high
achievement.,” said Executive Board member Dr. Alina Vehuni. To
further professional and educational development in the Syunik region,
Krikorian reported the collaboration with Teach for Armenia, TUMO
Center for Creative Technologies, Armenian American School
Psychologist Association (AASPA), CODE-3 Angels and Davidian/Mariamian
Educational Foundation.
For more information, email
info@hyehopes.org.
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4- Varak and Anomeh Zakarian ‘Leaving a Mark’ with Custom Coasters
Coasterize is a family-owned-and-operated business based in Los
Angeles. It was founded in 2019 by husband and wife Varak and Anomeh
Zakarian, out of their passion for design and desire to provide
customers with personalized gifts sure to make anyone feel special.
"We believe that whether it is a holiday, your birthday or just an
ordinary day, there is always something meaningful about receiving a
gift which has been handmade specifically for you," said Varak
Zakarian, noting that every product is made by hand in their workshop
and also ready to shipped anywhere in the world.
"We pride ourselves in believing that it is our duty to be the change
we want to see in the world and to always give back to those in need
and our community. Unfortunately, in September of 2020, our brothers
and sisters overseas became the ones in need as a devastating war
broke out in the caucuses. As proud Armenian-Americans, we were
humbled to be able to use our platform to raise $20,000 for
humanitarian aid. However, we decided that this wasn’t enough and
pledged that we would continue our efforts beyond the war by
continuing to donate a portion of our profits and bringing on
designers based in Armenia and Artsakh in order to do our part in
funneling new avenues of income into our homeland,," said Anomeh
Zakarian.
For more information, visit www.coasterize.com
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5- Azerbaijan Sentences Lebanese-Armenian Vicken Euljekjian to 20 Years
YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—In a ruling condemned by Armenia, a court in
Azerbaijan sentenced a Lebanese-born Armenian national to 20 years in
prison on Monday seven months after he was detained by Azerbaijani
forces in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The 41-year-old man, Vicken Euljekjian, travelled to Karabakh with a
Lebanese-Armenian friend, Maral Najarian, on November 10 hours after a
Russian-brokered ceasefire stopped last year’s Armenian-Azerbaijani
war. They were detained in the Karabakh town of Shushi (Shusha) and
taken to Baku.
Euljekjian, who lived in Shushi and worked as a taxi driver before the
war, was accused of being a terrorist and mercenary and illegally
entering Azerbaijan. Najarian risked similar accusations before being
released and repatriated in early March.
Euljekjian, who has dual Armenian and Lebanese citizenships, was found
guilty after a short trial condemned by Armenia’s government and human
rights groups as a travesty of justice.
Liparit Drmeyan, an aide to Armenia’s representative to the European
Court of Human Rights (ECHR), said Euljekjian did not have access to
lawyers chosen by him and the Azerbaijani authorities failed to
substantiate the charges leveled against him.
Drmeyan said the Armenian government will appeal against the verdict
in the Strasbourg-based court. “We are convinced that Azerbaijan has
violated Viken Euljekjian’s rights,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian
Service.
Euljekjian is one more than 100 Armenian soldiers and civilians
believed to remain in Azerbaijani captivity. Yerevan regularly demands
their immediate release, citing the terms of the truce agreement.
Baku has branded the remaining Armenian detainees as “terrorists” not
covered by the agreement. At least 42 of them are facing what the
Armenian Foreign Ministry condemned last week as “trumped-up criminal
charges.”
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