The California
Courier Online, September 1, 2022
1- Before
Reconciling with Turks, Armenians
Need to
Reconcile with Each Other
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- 27-year-old
becomes first Armenian appointed District Governor in Turkey
3- Letters to
the Editor
4- Turkish
intellectuals call on government
to reveal
assassination plot against Paylan
5- Armenia Continues Fight Against
COVID-19
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Before
Reconciling with Turks, Armenians
Need to
Reconcile with Each Other
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Can’t the Armenian government do anything right? Not a day
passes without additional bad news from Armenia and Artsakh! Rather than
blaming our enemies, we need to look at our own shortcomings and stop
inflicting more wounds on ourselves.
In the midst of the severe crisis in Armenia after the
devastating defeat in the 2020 Artsakh War, one would think that Armenian
leaders would have the wisdom to unite the nation and strengthen the military
to prevent further attacks on the country.
Surprisingly, Armenia has embarked on a course of
action that is further dividing and weakening the nation. Armenian leaders are
too incompetent to run a country with so many critical issues. Rather than
trying to minimize Armenia’s
losses, they are determined to add to the damage inflicted by its enemies.
For four years, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has been
dividing Armenians into “blacks” and “whites,” Artsakhtsis and Hayastantsis,
former leaders vs. the current one, and Armenia vs. Diaspora, at a time
when Armenians desperately need to be unified. He has threatened to slam into
the wall or the asphalt his domestic political opponents. He even went on the
campaign trail last year holding a hammer in his hand, promising to smash the
heads of those who oppose him.
Not only is Pashinyan too incompetent to lead Armenia, so are
his cabinet ministers and advisors. An incompetent leader cannot make competent
appointments.
Take for example, Pashinyan’s appointment of Zareh Sinanyan
to the post of “High Commissioner of Diaspora Affairs.” Sinanyan’s only
qualification is that he is a blind supporter of the Prime Minister.
Consequently, Sinanyan has hardly accomplished anything worthwhile during his
three years on the job, except for wasting the government’s meager budget on
his and staff’s frequent travels around the world.
Sinanyan just announced that his office will hold a “Global
Armenian Summit,” at the end of this October. One would have expected that he
would have the common sense to invite to the “Global Summit” the representatives
of all Armenian organizations and prominent individuals in Armenia and the
Diaspora, regardless of their political affiliation.
However, Sinanyan’s and the Prime Minister’s only goal is to
give the impression that they are busy doing something rather than actually
accomplishing anything useful for the nation. Sinanyan shortsightedly decided,
with the blessing of his boss, to invite to the “Global Armenian Summit”
Armenians who are the regime’s supporters, leaving out those who have dared to
oppose the current leaders. The government of Armenia is actually engaged in
dividing, rather than unifying the Diaspora.
In any other normal country, an employee like Sinanyan would
have been fired long ago for being incompetent and wasting the government’s
precious resources. However, this Prime Minister will not fire an underling who
is more incompetent than he is! Regrettably, Sinanyan does not even know his
job description. He has foolishly advocated inviting Arab immigrants to Armenia, not
realizing that his responsibility is dealing only with Diaspora Armenians, not
Arabs or other nationalities. In his frequent TV interviews, Sinanyan
constantly engages in partisan politics, criticizing major Armenian
organizations, and creating further divisions in the nation. He does not
understand that his job is not to act as a propagandist for Pashinyan’s regime,
but be a government employee who is getting paid a salary to be a bridge
between Armenia
and the Diaspora.
If the excuse of Pashinyan and Sinanyan is that their political
opponents would have refused to attend the “Global Armenian Summit,” that would
have been a good reason to invite them. Those who reject the invitation would
have looked bad and the government would have looked magnanimous rather than
petty. The Armenian government cannot behave like a thug who wants to settle
scores. Regrettably, it does not possess the maturity to rise above the fray. Armenia is the
home of all Armenians, not only those who agree with the regime. A small and
weak nation surrounded by powerful enemies cannot afford to splinter itself
into smaller fragments.
Rather than embracing all Armenians worldwide, the
government has rejected in recent weeks the entry of several prominent Diaspora
Armenians whose sole guilt is that they are opponents of the supposedly
“democratic” regime! Meanwhile, Turkish members of the Grey Wolves terrorist
group are allowed to enter Armenia
and insult the memory of the Armenian martyrs on the grounds of the Armenian
Genocide Memorial in Yerevan!
In the past 20 years, Armenia has organized several
Diaspora-Armenia conferences. None of them accomplished anything useful.
Sinanyan’s planned “Summit”
will have the same result. Pashinyan has repeatedly talked about allowing
Diaspora Armenians to assume high-level positions in the Armenian government.
Regrettably, beyond paying lip service, he has not taken any step in that
direction. Similarly, Sinanyan announced with much fanfare around a year ago
that his office will appoint Diaspora commissioners in Armenian communities
around the world. Until now, he has not appointed a single such commissioner.
When Pashinyan came to power in 2018, he pledged to increase
Armenia’s
population from less than 3 million to 5 million by the year 2050. Regrettably,
Armenia’s
population in his four years in office has declined, not increased. Beyond just
talking about encouraging repatriation to Armenia, nothing has been done.
It is high time that all Armenians unite to defend the
homeland against the powerful enemies on both sides of the border. Before
reconciling with Turks, Armenians first need to get along with each other.
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2- 27-year-old becomes first
Armenian appointed District Governor in Turkey
YEREVAN (Armenpress)—An
ethnic-Armenian Turkish lawyer is set to become the first ever Armenian to hold
the post of district governor in Turkey
after his appointment as the District Governor of Babadag, a city and district
in the Denizli Province, aynahaber.net reported.
Berk Acar, born in 1995, will soon assume the position.
He attended Private
Sahakyan Nunyan
Armenian Secondary
School and Luys
High School.
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3- Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor:
Vahakn Dadrian wasn’t just a professor and great scholar. He
was an Armenian hero who devoted his entire life to the Armenian Genocide and
was able to provide devastating evidence about that heinous crime. I read his books.
It’s shocking what they did to his grave (The California
Courier, August 18, “Taner Akcam alarmed by neglected grave of celebrated
Armenian scholar”). It is inexcusable to have his grave in Yerevan’s
Tokhmakh Cemetery. They should have buried him in
the Komitas Pantheon.
It is disgusting that they committed such disrespect to that
great man. What a shame to all of us to allow these traitors to insult Dadrian
and all Armenians who care about honor and appreciate our heroes. Dadrian was a
hero. We should consolidate our efforts to get approval for his grave to be
placed at Komitas Pantheon. How did diaspora Armenians not pay attention to
this blatant, maybe intentional criminal act?
It’s a shame that Prof. Taner Akcam had to bring it to our
attention. We should demand from the Armenian government to correct quickly
this outrageous failure. Dashnaks in Armenia should have raised hell
about it. All Armenian organizations should be ashamed for being silent. Why
not attack the government for this embarrassing situation? Let’s not forget our
main goal. After somehow electing a nationalist government, we need to go after
Turks for reparations. Dadrian’s life was devoted to genocide and its victims.
How can we tolerate anybody to treat our hero like this? If the government of Armenia doesn’t
react, we should expose them as traitors.
Stefan Martirosian,
Glendale,
CA
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4- Turkish intellectuals call on
government
to reveal assassination plot against Paylan
YEREVAN
(Armenpress)—424 Turkish intellectuals signed a statement on August 26 urging
the government to reveal the planned assassination attempt against Garo Paylan
in 2016, which was never implemented, ARMENPRESS reported the Istanbul-based
Armenian “Agos” newspaper. Over 400 writers, journalists, politicians and
artists signed a joint statement and called on the government, political
structures and the whole of Turkey
to take steps against the Deep state and mafia forces and reveal the plan of
the assassination attempt against Garo Paylan that was prepared and left
unfinished in 2016.
“What reinforces the recklessness of these dark forces is
their confidence that they will not be subject to criminal sanctions, even if
they threaten everyone. This confidence is fueled by the current political
climate. This atmosphere must be changed immediately,” the statement said.
Last week, Garo Paylan’s lawyer noted that in 2016, some
groups brought weapons into the Turkish parliament to kill Paylan, but were
thwarted by another group.
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5- Armenia Continues Fight Against
COVID-19
More than 2.2 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have
been administered in Armenia
since commencing the vaccination program a year ago, authorities said on August
29. COVID-19 has deeply affected Armenia's economy. Armenia has
recorded 432,274 coronavirus cases as of August 29.
Armenia
has recorded 8,648 deaths.; 412,661 have recovered.
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