The California
Courier Online, February 23, 2023
1- Earthquake
Damage and Corruption
Are
Intertwined in Erdogan’s Turkey
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Armenia sent about $400,000 worth of aid to Turkey and Syria
3- Azerbaijan, Turkey
citizens buy apartments, houses in Armenia
4- Armenian
Community, Beverly Hills
City Officials
Discuss
Anti-Armenian Hate Incident
5- Armenia Continues Fight Against
COVID-19
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1- Earthquake
Damage and Corruption
Are
Intertwined in Erdogan’s Turkey
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
With each passing day, the number of victims of the
earthquake in Turkey
is increasing. Our heart goes out to the nearly 50,000 dead and close to
200,000 injured as of now. The ancient city of Antioch
(Antakya) with a population of 250,000 has
been mostly reduced to rubble.
As I wrote last week, Armenians should distinguish between
the Turkish government that committed the Genocide and the Turkish people who
played no role in this mass crime. Not one of today’s Turks was alive in 1915.
In recent days, hundreds of articles have been written by
journalists from around the world pointing out that Pres. Recep Tayyip
Erdogan’s corrupt practices increased the toll of the disaster manifold.
Erdogan who came to power in 2003 as a devout Muslim has turned into a corrupt
dictator. As it is said, “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Many Turks blame Erdogan personally for the large number of deaths and the
collapse or damage of over 100,000 buildings which were poorly-constructed by
the President’s cronies. At least one million people have been left homeless in
Turkey.
Let’s start with the earthquake tax that the Turkish
government established after the earthquake in 1999 which had caused the deaths
of 17,000 people in Turkey.
In 2021, by a presidential decree, the tax was increased from 7.5% to 10% on
all private communication. The billions of dollars raised through this tax were
used to fund construction, transport and agricultural projects, instead of the
intended purposes of reinforcing buildings and disaster prevention.
Reuters reported the anguished plea from a mother whose two
sons were trapped alive for two days under the rubble in Antakya,
begging for a crane to rescue her children. “Many in Turkey
say more people could have survived the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck
the south of the country and neighboring Syria if the emergency response had
been faster and better organized.” In the absence of an organized rescue
effort, people were forced to dig through the rubble with their bare hands to
save their family members.
Turkish soldiers either did not show up to help in the
rescue or were too slow to arrive, awaiting orders from Erdogan’s civilian
officials. Interestingly, Erdogan had “risen to prominence more than two
decades ago partly due to his critique of the response to a major 1999
earthquake,” Reuters reported. Instead, “he hollowed out state institutions,
placed loyalists in key positions, wiped out most civil society organizations,
and enriched his cronies to create a small circle of loyalists around him,”
according to Foreignpolicy.com. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main
opposition party, said that even more damaging than the magnitude of last
week’s quake was the “lack of coordination, lack of planning and incompetence.”
Making the disaster worse, “in 2019, Pres. Erdogan of Turkey
praised legislation that his political party had pushed through allowing
property owners to have construction violations forgiven without bringing their
buildings up to code,” according to The New York Times. Up to 75,000 buildings
were given such amnesties in the earthquake zone alone. Ironically, just a few
days before the earthquake, the government was about to issue another amnesty
for construction violators. Now the Turkish government is arresting building
contractors with ties to collapsed buildings. But the true culprits are the
government officials who approved these shoddy buildings. Many of the owners of
these buildings have close ties to Pres. Erdogan or his ruling political party.
Rather than taking urgent measures to rescue the trapped
citizens, Erdogan lashed back at his critics. One such critic, “a French
journalist with long experience in Turkey, Guillaume Perrier, was detained at
the Istanbul airport and deported back to France, with a five-year ban on his
reentry into the country,” the Middle East Institute reported. Furthermore, the
government temporarily closed down the social media in the midst of the
earthquake to block criticism of the Turkish government’s incompetence.
The Jerusalem Post published an article on Feb. 20, titled:
“After the earthquake, Turkey’s
Erdogan hunts for scapegoats.” The article stated that: “Erdogan’s house of
cards has collapsed with the earthquake. There is already a rush to find
scapegoats and as well as the arrests of looters…. Faced with the coming
elections, what Erdogan will find equally hard to explain is a video
circulating on social media, where he boasted he had approved a construction amnesty
for buildings in the earthquake epicenter of Kahramanmarash, in 2019. This
meant they were absolved from adhering to building and earthquake regulations.
In the 10 earthquake provinces, almost 295,000 buildings were included.”
One of the unexpected side effects of the disastrous
earthquake is that Turkey
will be preoccupied for several years with the reconstruction of over 100,000
collapsed buildings. Turkey’s
attention will be sidetracked from attacking Syria,
Iraq, Cyprus, Greece,
Armenia and Libya. These
countries will breathe a sigh of relief for a while!
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2- Armenia
sent about $400,000 worth of aid to Turkey
and Syria
YEREVAN (Arka)—The Armenian
government has allocated 157.8 million drams ($400,000) to the Ministry of
Emergency Situations to cover the cost of humanitarian aid sent to the
earthquake-stricken regions of Turkey
and Syria.
Minister of Emergency Situations Armen Pambukhchyan said
humanitarian aid was sent to Syria
twice by air, to Turkey
also twice by land. The first cargo of humanitarian aid sent to Turkey weighed 100 tons; a second cargo crossed
into Turkey,
but reports did not state the amount of aid that was sent. Syria received
a total of 55 tons of humanitarian aid.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenian rescuers
already returned from Syria
and Turkey.
Armenia sent 27 rescuers to Turkey, and 29 to Syria.
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3- Azerbaijan,
Turkey citizens buy
apartments, houses in Armenia
(News.am)—To date, eight transactions of state registration
of real estate rights have been carried out by Azerbaijani citizens in Armenia, and 82—by Turkish nationals, reports
Sputnik Armenia.
In 2022, Azerbaijani nationals acquired two real estates in Armenia. This
was reported to Sputnik Armenia
by the Cadastre Committee of Armenia—and in response to a written request.
According to the information received, last year,
Azerbaijani citizens acquired one apartment in Armenia’s
capital Yerevan apartment and one house in Lori Province.
The Cadastre Committee added that Turkish nationals bought 11 real estates in Armenia in 2022: 11 apartments in Yerevan. Turkish citizens
did not buy real estate in the provinces.
Also, Azerbaijani and Turkish citizens did not sell any real
estate in Armenia
during the past year. The nationality of the citizens of those countries,
however, is not specified in the response received from the Cadastre Committee.
According to the data published earlier by the Cadastre
Committee, until 2022, six transactions of state registration of real estate
rights were carried out by Azerbaijani citizens in Armenia, and 71—by Turkish
nationals. Accordingly, Turkish citizens had bought 54 apartments in Armenia,
received two apartments as gifts, and exchanged one apartment. In addition,
they had bought five houses, one garage, eight public properties, and 12 plots
of land.
Six real estate acquisition transactions were carried out by
Azerbaijani nationals.
Thus, up to now, Azerbaijani citizens have acquired eight,
and Turkish nationals—82 immovable properties in Armenia.
Turkish citizens had first bought real estate in Armenia in
2005, whereas Azerbaijani nationals—in 2012.
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4- Armenian Community, Beverly Hills City Officials
Discuss
Anti-Armenian Hate Incident
GLENDALE, CA – The
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) local and national leadership and
a group of leaders from Armenian organizations met with City of Beverly Hills
Mayor Lili Bosse, Police Chief Mark Stainbrook, and City Manager Nancy
Hunt-Coffey, who came to Glendale on February 10th to discuss the anti-Armenian
flyers seen on the route of a protest organized by the Armenian Youth
Federation in response to Azerbaijan’s blockade of Artsakh.
The flyers, which lined utility poles from the Federal
Building to the Azerbaijani Consulate in Los Angeles, threatened that a group
of countries, including Azerbaijan and Turkey, would “wipe Armenia off the map”
– a brazen incitement of genocidal sentiments against the Armenian people.
After the flyers were discovered, the leadership of ANCA
local chapters immediately alerted area elected officials and law enforcement
to the incident. In response to the incident, Beverly Hills Mayor Lili Bosse
condemned the incitement of anti-Armenian hate, stating that “hate has no place
in Beverly Hills
or anywhere. I will always stand up, I will always speak out.” Los Angeles
Mayor Karen Bass also issued a comment, remarking, “there is no place for
anti-Armenian hatred in Los Angeles
or anywhere else.”
“Armenian-Americans are outraged by this latest act of hate
directed against our community,” remarked Armenian National Committee of
America National Board Member Zanku Armenian. “The meeting with City of Beverly Hills
representatives is an important first step in starting a dialogue to confront
the hate and persecution against the Armenian community. No community should
have to endure such treatment.”
A number of organizations, including the Anti-Defamation
League (ADL) of Southern California, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) of Los Angeles, and Jewish
World Watch (JWW), swiftly condemned the hateful flyers.
Initially, the Beverly Hills Police Department announced it
was investigating the anti-Armenian flyers posted in the city but concluded,
based on previous similar incidents, that they are protected free speech.
During the meeting representatives Steve Dadaian and Armen
Hovannisian of the Armenian Bar Association detailed how the events are part of
a bigger picture: about anti-Armenian incidents in California which have led to attacks and
violence against the community in recent years. They outlined how in 2020, the
Armenian-American community of San
Francisco was subject to a string of hate-fueled
attacks on community property.
Three separate incidents involving hateful vandalism on the
property of the Krouzian-Zekarian-Vasbouragan (KZV) Armenian School in San
Francisco, a subsequent drive-by shooting at school property, and an arson attack
on the St. Gregory Apostolic Church in San Francisco followed the ruthless
incitement of anti-Armenian hatred by Azerbaijan’s government in the immediate
lead up to the 2020 Artsakh War.
Other leaders shared that a year prior, Armenian schools in Los Angeles were vandalized with Turkish flags – a cruel
act designed to sow fear amongst the student body while hateful rhetoric and
acts continued unchecked by Azerbaijan
against Armenia
and Artsakh. The Beverly Hills Police Chief expressed understanding and said
they will continue to keep the investigation open to gather additional
intelligence that could lead to potential perpetrators and to ensure the safety
of the community.
During the meeting, ANCA representatives also briefed local
officials on the persistent incitement of anti-Armenian hatred by Azerbaijani
government officials both in Azerbaijan and abroad, noting how Azerbaijan’s
state-sponsored policy of Armenophobia fueled attacks on Armenian communities
not just in the United States but across the world.
Earlier in the day, the Beverly Hills
representatives met with their counterparts in the City of Glendale, including Mayor Ardy Kassakhian,
Police Chief Manny Cid, and City Manager Roubik Golanian, to exchange thoughts
about this situation and commit to working together to stand up against this
kind of anti-Armenian hatred. “We must take active steps in fighting this kind
of persecution of our communities because this has global roots to it starting
with the rhetoric coming from Azerbaijan’s
and Turkey’s
leadership,” said Mayor Kassakhian after the meeting. “We have seen how this
hateful culture gives way to acts of violence affecting any community, which
cannot be tolerated.”
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5- Armenia Continues Fight Against
COVID-19
YEREVAN (Armenpress)—The
cumulative total number of confirmed of COVID-19 cases in Armenia reached
446,008, the Ministry of Health reported on .
The total number of recoveries is 435,162. The death toll is
8,717.
COVID-19 has deeply affected Armenia's economy throughout the
last three years. Primary health care is people’s first point of entry into the
health system and the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the crucial role it plays.
While responding to the surge in demand due to the health
crisis, primary care centers and staff were able to maintain essential health
services.
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