1- Pitfalls of Armenia’s Unnecessary
Negotiations with Turkey
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Turkish, Armenian envoys to meet in Moscow on January 14
3- AAF Delivered $33 Million of Medicines
To Armenia and Artsakh in 2021
4- Armenian American groups fight distrust, disinformation
to encourage COVID-19 shots
5- Armenia Continues Fight Against COVID-19
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1- Pitfalls of Armenia’s Unnecessary
Negotiations with Turkey
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
“Armenia-Turkey normalization talks” on January 14, 2022 in Moscow.
Armenia may be bungling these negotiations once again!
— To begin with, Armenia does not need to negotiate with Turkey to
have the border opened. Such negotiations took place shortly after
Armenia’s independence in 1991, when Armenia and Turkey opened their
mutual border, until Turkey shut down its side of the border in 1993.
Since Turkey is the one that closed its border with Armenia
unilaterally, it can now open it also unilaterally. I fear that
Turkey’s intent to hold such unnecessary negotiations is aimed at
extorting concessions from Armenia.
— After its overwhelming loss during the 2020 war, Armenia’s defeated
leader will be negotiating from a position of weakness. A devastated
leader cannot have the mental and moral fortitude to negotiate
properly with such a problematic and cunning enemy. New leaders must
first come to power in Armenia so they can start the discussions, if
necessary, from a non-defeatist attitude.
— There is a fundamental problem with Armenia normalizing its
relations with Turkey, a nation that committed genocide, killing 1.5
million Armenians in 1915. A century later, Turkey still lies about
its mass crimes and denies their occurrence. An unrepentant
genocidaire cannot be a trusted party with which one can negotiate in
good faith.
— In addition to its past crimes, Turkey outrageously participated in
a new massacre of Armenians, killing and wounding thousands of young
Armenian soldiers in the Artsakh war. To make matters worse,
Turkey recruited Jihadist terrorists from Syria and arranged for their
transportation to Azerbaijan during the war. How can Armenia’s Prime
Minister engage in discussions with an enemy with such recurring
hostility? Just imagine if Germany, a country that committed genocide
against six million Jews, would attack today’s Israel and kill
thousands of Israelis. Do you think Israeli leaders would then sit
down with today’s German leaders and negotiate with them as if nothing
happened? Every Jew in the world would be up in arms over such a
prospect. Armenia’s leaders seem to be oblivious about Turkey’s past
and present crimes. They are more than happy to negotiate with the
criminals in Ankara with a callous attitude. If the Armenian leaders
won’t defend their nation’s rights, how can they expect outsiders to
care about Armenia more than them?
— Prime Minister Pashinyan came to power rejecting the rule of former
President Serzh Sargsyan with the slogan “Merjir Serzhin” (Reject
Serzh). Why is Pashinyan then copying Sargsyan’s flawed policies with
Turkey? Armenians in and out of Armenia were up in arms over the
previous president’s ill-fated 2009 Armenian-Turkish Protocols. It
does not look like Pashinyan has learned anything from that failed
experiment.
— “Negotiations without preconditions” is another mantra repeated by
Armenian’s previous and current leaders. But the fact is that, rather
than Armenia placing preconditions on Turkey, it is Turkey that is
advancing preconditions. During the 2009 Protocols negotiations,
Turkey said it did not have any preconditions, nevertheless, several
Turkish preconditions ended up in the agreement. Pres. Erdogan’s
spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, confirmed such Armenian concerns when he
said at the end of December while visiting Chicago: “we want the
border to be opened and diplomatic relations to begin. For this,
certain conditions must be met and certain issues must be negotiated.”
— The Protocols failed in 2009 because Azerbaijan objected to Turkey
opening its border with Armenia. That helped save Armenia’s interests
that were supposed to be protected not by Azerbaijan, but by the
President of Armenia! The current negotiations may fail also, unless
Pashinyan is ready to concede whatever Erdogan asks for. Turkey is now
demanding that Armenia accept the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan
by signing a peace treaty, thus giving up Artsakh and Nakhichevan for
good, and allowing the so-called “Zangezur Corridor,” not just a road,
linking Azerbaijan East with Nakhichevan. Finally, if Turkey comes to
the table with preconditions, Armenia should be prepared to walk away
or counter with its own preconditions: Recognition of the Armenian
Genocide, restitution for consequent Armenian losses, and return of
occupied Western Armenia.
— Before signing the 2009 Armenia-Turkey Protocols, Pres. Sargsyan
made a half-hearted attempt to visit several Diaspora communities
ostensibly to hear their views. Pashinyan has made no such attempt. He
has not consulted with anyone from the Diaspora. Pashinyan should
realize that relations with Turkey are a pan-Armenian issue, not
solely a domestic matter of the Republic of Armenia. He should take
into consideration Diaspora’s views, even if he is the one who makes
the final decision. Moreover, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu recently stated that “extremist groups” in the Armenian
Diaspora “should not put pressure on Yerevan,” to disrupt the
Armenia-Turkey relations. In addition, Erdogan’s spokesman Kalin said
in Chicago recently: “the current Armenia-Turkey normalization process
will destroy the Armenian community of the United States.” Such a
statement is an unwelcome interference in intra-Armenian affairs.
Turkish officials’ unwarranted statements should galvanize all
Armenians to reject their unacceptable intervention.
— The qualifications of the person conducting the negotiations on
behalf of Armenia are extremely important. Erdogan appointed as
Turkey’s negotiator the seasoned diplomat, former Turkish Ambassador
to the United States, and notorious genocide denialist Serdar Kilic.
Pashinyan, on the other hand, in line with his many other unqualified
appointments, named Ruben Rubinyan, a young neophyte with zero
diplomatic experience. His only claim to fame is that he is a member
of Pashinyan’s political party and Deputy Chairman of the Armenian
Parliament. Amazingly, when questioned about Rubinyan’s
qualifications, Pashinyan and his political colleagues claimed that
Rubinyan’s party affiliation is much more important than his
inexperience, thereby putting their party’s interests ahead of that of
the nation. Thus, the outcome of the upcoming negotiations is crystal
clear since the wolf will be facing the lamb! There must be more
competent and experienced Armenian diplomats who can conduct such
sensitive negotiations.
— Pashinyan keeps repeating proudly that the leaders of Russia, the
United States, and France support his plans to negotiate with Turkey.
Let’s not forget that Azerbaijan and Turkey also support this
initiative. All of these countries are simply advancing their own
interests, not that of Armenia.
— Finally, Pashinyan’s much touted claim of economic benefits to
Armenia as a result of opening the Armenian-Turkish border is a
dubious expectation. Already, without the border being open, Turkish
products have flooded the Armenian market. The opening of the border
would mean that the cheaper Turkish products will destroy Armenia’s
domestic production. A tiny country with a small population cannot
compete with Turkish products which enjoy the advantage of “economies
of scale” (higher volume at lower cost). To make matters worse,
Pashinyan just threw away the only bargaining chip Armenia had by
lifting the temporary ban on the import of Turkish goods, thus
depriving Armenia of its trump card in these negotiations.
Turkey, a destitute country with a failing economy, collapsed Lira, 12
percent unemployment, 36 percent inflation, and raging coronavirus
(7th highest number of infections in the world), is desperate to
ameliorate its domestic dismal conditions and mend its damaged ties
with the United States, Europe, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab
Emirates, and Egypt. An astute Armenian negotiator, realizing the
Turkish eagerness to impress the world, would attempt to extract more
favorable terms for normalizing relations with Turkey.
No one opposes negotiations with Turkey as long as the negotiator
representing Armenia is a competent person who is able to bring
benefits to Armenia’s interests.
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2- Turkish, Armenian envoys to meet in Moscow on January 14
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Special envoys from Turkey and Armenia will hold
their first meeting aimed at normalizing their ties on Jan. 14 in
Moscow, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday, January 5.
The two neighbors, which have no diplomatic ties, agreed last month to
appoint special representatives who would discuss ways of establishing
formal ties and end years of tense relations. Turkey and Armenia also
hope to resume charter flights between Istanbul and Yerevan.
The move is seen as part of an effort to end tensions in the Caucasus
region. It is also part of Turkey’s efforts to reconcile with a number
of countries it has fallen out with, including Egypt, the United Arab
Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and to end its regional isolation.
A Foreign Ministry statement didn’t provide further details on the
meeting to be held in Moscow. Turkey appointed Serdar Kilic (pictured,
left), a former ambassador to the United States as its special
representative while Armenia appointed deputy parliamentary speaker
Ruben Rubinyan (pictured, right). Ankara and Yerevan had reached an
agreement in 2009 to establish formal relations and to open their
joint border, but the agreement was never ratified because of
opposition from Azerbaijan. This time around, however, the
reconciliation efforts have Azerbaijan’s blessing and Turkish
officials have said Ankara would “coordinate” the normalization
process with Azerbaijan. Turkey, a close ally of Azerbaijan, shut down
its border with Armenia in 1993, in a show of solidarity with Baku,
which was locked in a conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh
region.
In 2020, Turkey strongly backed Azerbaijan in the six-week conflict
with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, which ended with a Russia-brokered
peace deal that saw Azerbaijan gain control of a significant part of
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkey and Armenia also have a more than century-old hostility over
the deaths of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians in massacres,
deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey.
Historians widely view the event as genocide.
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3- AAF Delivered $33 Million of Medicines
To Armenia and Artsakh in 2021
The Armenia Artsakh Fund (AAF) delivered $33 million of humanitarian
assistance to Armenia and Artsakh during the 12 months of 2021. The
shipments included much needed medicines and medical supplies for
treatment of COVID-19 patients, as well as medicines and medical
supplies for oncology, cardio vascular and gastrointestinal patients
in addition to hygiene products and reading glasses.
In the last three months of 2021 alone, the AAF shipped $11.5 million
of medicines and medical supplies to Armenia and Artsakh. Of this
amount, the AAF collected medicines and medical supplies donated by
Direct Relief ($8.4 million) and AmeriCares ($2.8 million). The other
organization which contributed valuable goods during this period was
Project Agape ($271,000).
The medicines, medical supplies and hygiene products donated during
this period were sent to 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, Kanaker Zeytoun Medical Center, Metsn Nerses
Charitable Organization, Muratsan Children’s Endocrinology Center,
National Hematology Center and the health ministries of Armenia and
Artsakh. In the past 33 years, including the shipments under its
predecessor, the United Armenian Fund, the AAF delivered to Armenia
and Artsakh a grand total of $947 million worth of relief supplies on
board 158 airlifts and 2,518 sea containers.
“The Armenia Artsakh Fund is regularly offered free of charge millions
of dollars of life-saving medicines and medical supplies. All we have
to do is pay for the shipping expenses. We welcome your generous
donations to be able to continue delivering this valuable assistance
to all medical centers in Armenia and Artsakh,” said AAF President
Harut Sassounian.
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4- Armenian American groups fight distrust, disinformation
to encourage COVID-19 shots
By Emily Alpert Reyes
(Los Angeles Times)—In Armenia, it is estimated that less than a
quarter of residents had gotten vaccinated against COVID-19 as of
mid-December, even as the country has drawn vaccine tourists.
The numbers are not nearly as stark in Glendale and Los Angeles
neighborhoods such as Little Armenia, Thai Town and Sunland-Tujunga —
areas that are hubs for one of the biggest populations of Armenians
outside Armenia.
But they have lagged behind the Los Angeles County average, troubling
some community leaders and physicians who fear that enduring distrust
of government — stemming from genocide, upheaval and a precarious
history in other countries — has made it harder to sway some Armenian
Americans to get the shots.
For immigrants from the former Soviet Union, “there wasn’t any trust
or credibility toward government,” said Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian
(D-North Hollywood). Other Armenians who came from countries including
Iran, Lebanon and Syria, he said, had faced “civil wars, internal
strife, fear of retribution.”
All of that has fostered “a lot of concern towards just blanketly
accepting what government is telling them,” Nazarian said.
It is unclear whether vaccine hesitancy or refusal is more pronounced
among Armenian Americans than any other group in L.A. County, since
public health officials do not track them as a group. But Nazarian
called attention to the numbers in areas like Little Armenia, where
only 56.6% of eligible residents were fully vaccinated as of
mid-December, compared with 70% countywide.
In Glendale, where more than a third of residents are estimated to be
of Armenian descent, the vaccination rate was 62.1%
Vic Keossian said that in Glendale parks, she has heard elderly men
playing chess repeat the same doubts that have dogged public health
outreach all over the county. “They have all this distrust in the
vaccine,” Keossian said.
And false claims about the shots causing infertility have had a
particular resonance in her community, she said, because of the trauma
reverberating through its history.
“Armenians just have a different connection, I think, to fertility
after going through genocide,” said Keossian, who works for the
Armenian Relief Society of Western USA as program supervisor for a
county COVID-19 community equity fund. “It’s something that’s really
ingrained in us.”
Vaccination rates have been extremely low in Armenia itself. In early
November, only 12% of adults there were fully vaccinated against
COVID-19, according to a presentation by the country’s health
ministry. The numbers have ticked up significantly since then,
reaching an estimated 32% of Armenian adults as of mid-December, but
have remained lower than in neighboring countries, according to
statistics tracked by Our World in Data.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Armenians had lower levels of
confidence in vaccines than most of the European region, according to
a study published in the Lancet. Armenian American Medical Society
board member Dr. Vicken Sepilian said that in Armenia, such attitudes
had been exacerbated by problems with the AstraZeneca vaccine rollout.
For people who rely heavily on news and social media from Armenia,
“all of this has trickled down to our Armenian communities here,”
Sepilian said.
In the U.S., “you’re seeing this among the people who have the most
direct links to Armenia,” said Armine Lulejian, a clinical assistant
professor of population and public health sciences at the Keck School
of Medicine of USC. Among Armenian Americans who have emigrated from
Armenia, “they have this backlash against anything ‘Big Brother’-ly
since the collapse of the Soviet Union. If the government is saying
it, they’re against it.”
Eric Hacopian, a political consultant for L.A. candidates who is
currently residing in Armenia, also faulted “a feeder loop of
misinformation” that can be especially potent among immigrants coming
from the former Soviet Union or much of the Middle East who see little
credibility in state authorities or the media.
“Social media keeps everyone in touch with their home countries,”
Hacopian said. “They’ll keep in touch with the good, and they’ll keep
in touch with the bad.”
Some believe that the devastation from the war last year between
Armenia and Azerbaijan is also at play. For many Armenian Americans,
“I feel like COVID took a back seat because of what the people went
through,” said Talar Aintablian, director of operations for the social
services division of the Armenian Relief Society of Western USA.
In Glendale, the vaccination numbers have notably lagged among
seniors, with 75.4% being fully vaccinated as of mid-December,
compared with 88% of seniors across L.A. County.
Glendale city officials said they have worked with the county to set
up vaccination clinics at trusted sites including St. Mary’s Armenian
Apostolic Church and have recorded videos on the COVID-19 vaccines
with physicians known to the Armenian community.
Among them is Dr. Haig Aintablian, a UCLA emergency medicine doctor
who has gotten vaccinated publicly and spoken on Armenian-language
television about it. The physician said he is blunt about the
suffering and death he has seen from the virus.
“More needs to come from Armenians that have seen COVID,” he said. But
Armenian American residents who have suffered from the virus sometimes
fear talking about the issue, he said, “because it’ll come off as
vaccine pressure.”
The Glendale Public Library has also hosted online trainings for
people to become “vaccine influencers,” but only one person attended
the Armenian-language training and disappeared at the end without
asking any questions, said Evelyn Aghekian, a library assistant who
ran the presentation.
Aghekian said that when she sat with Armenian-language fliers for the
event outside the Glendale Galleria, some people welcomed the
outreach, but for others, “they come, they pick up the paper, they
look at me, shake their head and walk away.”
“But they took the paper,” she added.
In November, Nazarian, the assemblyman, helped host an event on
YouTube featuring Armenian American physicians talking about the
COVID-19 vaccines. The trio of doctors countered common misinformation
about the shots and discussed why vaccines are still recommended for
people who have previously been infected with COVID-19.
During the live event, some viewers accused Nazarian and the doctors
of being traitors. One person commented in the online chat that they
were “hiding the truth from your own community,” adding an Armenian
term that roughly translates to “backstabbers.”
At one point, Nazarian asked the panelists to respond to a statement
by one commenter about the vaccines causing cancer. Dr. Jack
Der-Sarkissian, a family medicine doctor with Kaiser Permanente,
replied, “I’m not sure where the basis of that concern would be.”
He explained that cancer is a form of damage to DNA and reiterated
that the COVID-19 vaccines do not alter recipients’ DNA. Still,
Der-Sarkissian said, “I would never dismiss a concern. I think that’s
what science is.”
Der-Sarkissian said the worries he has heard from Armenian American
patients aren’t radically different than others, but he has been
surprised that vaccine hesitancy “seems to have united the community
in ways that I had not anticipated.”
The doctor said the reaction seemed to be shaped by the recent war,
which he described as a once-in-a-generation loss and experience of
perceived abandonment that “deeply impacted not just people in Armenia
but the people here in Los Angeles.”
Nazarian also pointed to grief and trauma from the war. “You had the
world stay completely silent as this small little country was fending
for itself,” he said. For a community that waited decades for a
sitting U.S. president to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, that
sense of international indifference “just leant itself to further
distrust.”
George Lousparian, a construction contractor who lives in
Sunland-Tujunga, said that many people in his culture distrust
government from the experiences that they or their families have had
in Turkey, Iran or under Soviet regimes. But he said his own concerns
about the vaccines stem from shifting messages from U.S. government
officials.
He cited changing guidance early in the pandemic about masks, as well
as emerging information about waning protection from the vaccine and
the need for booster shots. “With so many inconsistencies, how do I
trust it?” he asked. “My skepticism is not because of being Armenian
or not. I make decisions based on what data is out there.”
L.A. County public health officials said that since May, more than a
dozen agencies partnering with the county had done outreach to more
than 8,300 Armenian American residents about the vaccines. The
Armenian American Medical Society teamed up with Glendale and the
county to provide health information at vaccination clinics outside
the Glendale Galleria.
The Armenian Relief Society of Western USA has also hosted vaccination
clinics at its Glendale headquarters, sent Armenian-speaking
volunteers to vaccination clinics, translated public health
information into Armenian, and canvassed parks and other gathering
places in Glendale ZIP Codes with especially low vaccination rates.
“Sometimes people are willing to hear what we have to say,” said Suzy
Petrossian, project coordinator with ARS Western USA. “And other times
we get a lot of, ‘No, we don’t want it, this is all made up.’”
Some simply say “Kuh mtatzem” — or “I’ll think about it.” Case manager
Ani Tangyan lets them know she’ll be there if they ever want help
getting the shots.
“After one month, two months, they are coming” back, Tangyan said, and
they ask, “Where is that girl?”
Times staff writer Hamlet Nalbandyan contributed to this report.
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5- Armenia Continues Fight Against COVID-19
Armenia continues the fight against COVID-19, as the country continues
promoting the vaccination phase. The U.S. State Department on July 26
warned American citizens to reconsider travel to Armenia due to the
increase in cases of the Covid-19.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a
Level 3 Travel Health Notice for Armenia due to COVID-19, indicating a
high level of COVID-19 in the country,” said the State Department.
The State Department also urged U.S. citizens not to travel to the
Nagorno-Karabakh region due to armed conflict. “The U.S. government is
unable to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in
Nagorno-Karabakh as U.S. government employees are restricted from
traveling there,” the State Department added.
WHO, with funding from the European Union, in September supplied X-ray
equipment to 7 COVID-19 frontline hospitals – 1 in the capital Yerevan
and in 6 other cities in Armenia.
A new law came into effect on December 10, by order of the Armenian
Ministry of Health, that would allow employers to fire workers who
refuse to provide proof of vaccination. Armenia has the lowest
vaccination rate in the region and Europe. Armenia began its mass
vaccination campaign in April with authorities planning to inoculate
700,000 of the country's 2.9 million citizens by the end of the year.
However, only 516,989 citizens had been fully vaccinated by Dec. 6.
620,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine were donated to Armenia by Norway
with the support of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism within the
framework of the Team Europe initiative is already in Armenia.
"The entire infrastructure is ready to carry out a large number of
vaccinations. I add that vaccination does not exclude the disease, but
reduces the risk of contagion", Armenian Health Minister Anahit
Avanesyan reported during a recent press conference, adding that the
late entry into force of the restrictive measures was a shortcoming of
her department. According to the minister, they are currently
considering the option of requesting certification of negativity from
Covid or vaccination to enter restaurants and attend concerts.
There were 4,968 active cases in Armenia as of January 9, 2022.
Armenia has recorded 345,855 coronavirus cases and 8,001 deaths;
332,886 have recovered.
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