The California
Courier Online, December 7, 2023
1- Azerbaijan Plans Takeover of Armenia
To Create ‘Western Azerbaijan’
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher, California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Attorney
Hrair Kaladjian Sworn in as Riverside County Judge
3- Armenian
Soldier Killed On Azeri Border
4- Bruce
Janigian Concludes Armenian Trilogy with ‘Uncle Yeghia’s Basement’
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1- Azerbaijan Plans Takeover of Armenia
To Create ‘Western Azerbaijan’
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher, California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
While Armenians are dealing with the dispossession of
Artsakh and trying to cope with its tragic consequences, Azerbaijan is escalating its demands by
launching a campaign claiming that the entire territory of the Republic of Armenia
is supposedly ‘Western Azerbaijan.’ No
sensible person in the world would take such an outrageous lie seriously,
simply because Azerbaijan
was founded a little over a century ago, while Armenia has been in existence for
thousands of years. Even Coca Cola is older than Azerbaijan!
After establishing the ‘Western Azerbaijan Committee’ with
the blessing of Pres. Aliyev, Azerbaijan
has embarked on a worldwide campaign to disseminate its ridiculous scheme
around the world and at the United Nations. Those Armenians who are concerned
about Azerbaijan’s
expansionist plans over the Syunik province
of Armenia or the so-called Zangezur
Corridor should be more alarmed about Azerbaijan’s
enormous appetite to take over all of the Republic of Armenia,
after occupying Artsakh.
Here are four actions Azerbaijan has taken at the UN in
recent months:
1) Azerbaijan’s
Ambassador to the UN Yashar Aliyev circulated to all members of the General
Assembly and Security Council a letter by the ‘Western Azerbaijan Committee’ on
January 17, 2023, stating that “All Azerbaijanis expelled from the territory of
nowadays Armenia
and their descendants have the right to return to their homeland.”
2) A second letter was submitted by Azerbaijan to
the UN on February 22, 2023, accusing Armenians of carrying out acts of
“violence, genocide, massacres and other crimes against humanity and gross
violations of human rights. This process was particularly violent and cruel in
1905–1906, 1918–1921, 1948–1953 and 1987–1991.” The letter added that “in
nowadays Armenia,
Azerbaijani historical and cultural heritage, including mosques and graveyards,
were massively destroyed, toponyms were changed and systematic racial
discrimination was carried out against Azerbaijanis.”
Moreover, Azerbaijan
demanded that the UN take the following steps for the settlement of
Azerbaijanis in Armenia:
“− Obtaining a legally binding international agreement with
appropriate verification and guarantee mechanisms ensuring the voluntary return
of Azerbaijanis expelled from the territory of nowadays Armenia to their
homeland in safety and dignity;
− Securing the return process with appropriate security,
humanitarian and socio-economic assistance programs;
− Establishing international monitoring, accountability,
security, intervention and other necessary activities to prevent the recurrence
of expulsion, discrimination and harm to the returned population;
− Ensuring sustainable rehabilitation and reintegration of
returnees through the implementation of reconstruction and reconciliation
measures under international supervision.”
Azerbaijan’s
UN Ambassador demanded that Azeris who return to Armenia
“have unimpeded communication with the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
This is a very alarming suggestion which means that the Republic
of Azerbaijan wants to have a road
under its control within the territory
of Armenia. The letter
added that Azeris returning to Armenia
should not be dispersed throughout the country, but kept together as a group
and their safety and rights ensured. Even more alarming is the demand that
Azeris be able to “use the Azerbaijani language in the legislative, executive
and judicial branches of the [Armenian] Government.” Azerbaijan
added the following ridiculous demand: “Azerbaijanis shall be entitled to form
local security forces and take an appropriate role in courts” of Armenia. This
actually means that Armenia
will be an appendix to Azerbaijan
rather than a sovereign republic.
Furthermore, to ensure the safety of Azeris returning to Armenia, Azerbaijan “considers it necessary
to deploy an international security mission with an appropriate mandate and comprising
the forces of countries trusted by Western Azerbaijanis in the areas to which
they will be returning.” In other words, Azerbaijan
wants to station foreign troops on Armenia’s territory, which is
completely unacceptable. Azerbaijan
also stated that “The Government of Armenia shall ensure the return of property
and community lands belonging to Azerbaijanis and pay compensation for property
damage and losses caused by preventing the use of property.” Those who make
such insane demands are living in a make-believe world.
3) The ‘Western Azerbaijan Committee’ delivered a letter to
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in April 2023, requesting him “to send a
special UN mission to Armenia for launching the process of safe and dignified
return of Azerbaijanis expelled from this country.”
4) The ‘Western Azerbaijan Committee’ submitted a report in
October 2023 to the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
According to the Azeri media, the UN Committee “demanded that Armenia address
the issues raised by the Western Azerbaijan Committee.” If there is any truth
in this claim, I hope that Armenia’s
UN Representative responded to Azerbaijan’s
allegations and exposed the Azeri lies.
This is the vindictive enemy that Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan naively believes he can sign a ‘Peace Treaty’ with. This unnecessary
‘Peace Treaty’ will actually undermine Armenia’s interests. Azerbaijan is already demanding that the rights
of “Azeris expelled from Armenia”
be included in such a treaty, thus providing the ground for future aggression
and occupation by Azerbaijan.
The Azeri letter to the UN in fact includes such an alarming provision: “the
[Azeri] Community will aspire to include the creation of conditions for the
return of Western Azerbaijanis to their homeland as an obligation of Armenia in the peace treaty to be concluded
between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
The only way to end this nonsense is for Armenia to stop the slippery slope of making
endless concessions to Azerbaijan
and reject all of its unacceptable demands.
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2- President of Iraq visits Armenia
In 2022, attorney Hrair Kaladjian was sworn as a judge in Riverside County where he volunteers his time for
the Courts while actively maintaining his private law practice.
Originally from Ethiopia,
Kaladjian has called California
his home for over 40 years. He has an undergraduate degree in Biology and a
Juris Doctorate from Southwestern
Law School.
As a grandchild of genocide survivors, Kaladjian is active
in his local community reminding the world that the crime of the Armenian
Genocide remains unresolved. After the 2020 war on Armenians, Kaladjian filed a
lawsuit against the State Department for illegally waiving section 907 of the
Freedom Support Act, which made its way to the United States Supreme Court.
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3- Armenian Soldier Killed On
Azeri Border
An Armenian soldier serving on the border with Azerbaijan was shot dead on Monday, December 4
in what Yerevan
described as an Azerbaijani ceasefire violation aimed at torpedoing peace
talks.
Armenia’s
Defense Ministry said the soldier, Gerasim Arakelian, was fatally wounded by
sniper fire at an Armenian army post near the village
of Bardzruni bordering Azerbaijan’s
Nakhichevan exclave.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry denied the “provocative
information,” saying that its troops did not breach the ceasefire. The head of
the Bardzruni administration, Arsen Aleksanian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service
that local residents heard the sounds of cross-border gunfire. Serious truce
violations at that section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border have been rare
until now.
“We strongly condemn these actions of the Azerbaijani side
aimed at provoking a new escalation, dragging out the peace process and
bringing it to a dead end,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in a statement
on the deadly incident. The statement also said that Baku
is “continuously rejecting offers from various international actors to continue
negotiations” with Yerevan.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan deplored Baku’s
“refusal to come to meetings organized by various international actors,
including the U.S.
and the EU” when he addressed last week an annual conference of the top
diplomats of OSCE member states. His Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov
said Yerevan
itself is dragging out talks on an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev twice cancelled
EU-mediated talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian planned for
October. Bayramov similarly withdrew from a November 20 meeting with Mirzoyan
that was due to take place in Washington.
Baku accused the Western powers of pro-Armenian
bias and proposed direct negotiations with Yerevan.
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4- Bruce
Janigian Concludes Armenian Trilogy with ‘Uncle Yeghia’s Basement’
Writing as Avery Mann, former government official and think
tank director Bruce Janigian concludes his trilogy of Armenian themed
novels—The Mark Jamison Adventures—with just released Uncle Yeghia’s Basement.
Charlie Epson pulls his oars against the tides every morning
in a silent contest with his past. He is among a very special cohort monitored
within the Angel Landing Yacht Club; those whose career misadventures in public
service exposed them to matters never to be shared. Yes, this group needs to
drink a lot. But like their glasses filled to the brim, they are permitted good
conversation without spilling. When an old colleague winds up in the bay with a
broken neck and former Soviet assassins arrive looking for laundered Ukrainian
funds to help their war effort, Bjorn Ingman and Mark Jamison are once again
called into action in this thrilling new mystery, the third volume following on
Angel Landing and Persona Non Grata: End of the Great Game by the same renowned
author.
In his first novel, Angel Landing, former government agent
and think-tank director Mark Jamison needs a quiet coastal refuge for his
breathing problems, and maybe some space to sort out his life and what remains
of his marriage. What he finds in the mysterious little village of Angel Landing
quickly escalates into a series of adventures to save the planet, or at least
its male inhabitants, and soon forces him to confront his past and the assumptions
that brought him here.
Janigian’s last novel, Persona Non Grata: End of the Great
Game included a historic and globe-spanning romp through Armenia’s past
as the last best hope of saving humanity. How the rich past of this small
nation could save the future of the world involves lost Byzantine secrets, a
mysterious chess master and his relationship with the Vatican and
Kremlin.
Uncle Yeghia’s Basement continues Janigian’s passion for
truth telling and disclosing secrets along the way, from the unknown realities
of the Pacific War to Ukraine,
and the destruction of Nord Stream 2 pipelines. The novels feature half
Armenian protagonist Mark Jamison, the thinly disguised alter ego for the fully
Armenian Janigian, whose international adventures included foreign
correspondent in Beirut, Fulbright scholar, legal adviser for USAID and the
Navy, and vice president of the American University of Armenia.
The trilogy is available on Amazon.
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