The California
Courier Online, December 21, 2023
1- Armenia Could
Have Gotten a Better Deal
In the
Prisoner Exchange with Azerbaijan
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher, California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- ‘Amerikatsi’
Review: Armenia’s
Oscar Submission
Is A
Wayward, Blackly Comic Tale Of Hope
3- Greg
Martayan Named Valley Economic Alliance Vice President
4- 150
Prominent Leaders Demand Release of Armenian Prisoners from Baku Jail
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1- Armenia
Could Have Gotten a Better Deal
In the
Prisoner Exchange with Azerbaijan
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher, California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Thirty two Armenian prisoners of war, languishing in a Baku jail for a long
time, were finally freed and returned back to their overjoyed families. I will
analyze the background and circumstances of their release, pointing out why Armenia should
have gotten a much better deal.
1) The agreement to end the 2020 war, signed by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, and Armenia’s Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinyan, included a clause that mandated that “an exchange of
prisoners of war, hostages and other detained persons and bodies of the dead is
to be carried out.” Pashinyan’s blunder was that no deadline was set for the
implementation of this clause, thus allowing Azerbaijan to keep the Armenian
prisoners as long as it wished.
2) Pashinyan’s second mistake was that, shortly after the
end of the 2020 war, Armenia
released all the Azeri prisoners, while Azerbaijan released only some of
the Armenian prisoners. There was no all for all exchange.
3) Even though the 2020 agreement did not impose any
preconditions for the release of the Armenian and Azeri prisoners, Pashinyan
made his third mistake by turning over to Azerbaijan
the maps of Armenian landmines in Azeri-occupied Artsakh in return for the
release by Azerbaijan
of a few more Armenian prisoners. Pres. Aliyev learned the valuable lesson that
he can extract more concessions from Armenia by the slow and gradual
release of the Armenian prisoners. In other words, Aliyev discovered that the
Armenian prisoners were more valuable for him if he kept them in a Baku jail, and released a few at a time in return for
further concessions from Armenia.
4) Pashinyan’s obsession over an unnecessary ‘Peace Treaty’
with Azerbaijan provides yet another opportunity for Aliyev to extract further
concessions from Armenia, including the demand for additional Armenian
territories during border adjustment negotiations, the return of Azeris to
their previously inhabited villages inside Armenia, and acceptance of the
so-called ‘Zangezur Corridor’ linking Eastern Azerbaijan to its exclave of
Nakhichevan instead of a road under Armenia’s control, as mentioned in the 2020
agreement.
5) Pashinyan should have refused all meetings and
negotiations with Azerbaijan
until the removal of its forces from the territory it occupies inside Armenia and the
return of all Armenian prisoners of war.
6) Azerbaijan
agreed to exchange two Azeri soldiers with 32 Armenian prisoners of war because
Armenia withdrew its own
candidacy and lifted its veto of Azerbaijan
hosting next year’s prestigious international climate change conference (COP29)
in Baku. This
is the only reason why Aliyev agreed to have such a lop-sided exchange of
prisoners. None of the other publicly mentioned reasons are true. Contrary to
baseless speculations, the U.S.,
EU, NATO, Russia, Turkey, and Iran played no role in arranging
this prisoner exchange. It was Aliyev’s strong desire to use the conference as
a means to show off Baku as an internationally
significant capital in order to deflect attention away from Azerbaijan’s
serious human rights violations and war crimes. Aliyev had gone to great
lengths to host other major events in Baku,
such as the Formula One Car Race, the Non-Aligned Conference Summit,
Eurovision, European Games, etc.
7) Given Aliyev’s fixation on hosting the Climate Summit in Baku at any cost, Armenia should have sought the
release of all Armenian prisoners of war, not just 32 of them. In addition,
Pashinyan should have demanded the release of the high-ranking Artsakh
officials who were captured and jailed by Azerbaijan at the end of September
2023.
8) In the meantime, over 100,000 exiled Artsakh Armenians
are suffering in Armenia,
deprived of the most basic necessities, such as housing, food, and medicines.
Artsakh Armenians have left behind all of their possessions. The Armenian
government should file a lawsuit in the World Court demanding that Azerbaijan pay
compensation for the confiscated properties of Artsakh Armenians.
9) The above cited issues raise serious questions about the
high praise lavished on Pashinyan by his supporters who are proud that he
scored a major success with the release of 32 Armenian prisoners. Little do
they know that a more competent Armenian leader could have gotten much more
concessions from Azerbaijan
than the return of some of the Armenian prisoners.
10) Pashinyan’s supporters are also ecstatic that various
international leaders expressed their satisfaction with the exchange of the
prisoners, hoping that this would lead the two countries to signing a ‘Peace
Treaty.’ What Pashinyan’s supporters do not understand is that a ‘Peace Treaty’
would not actually bring peace to the two countries, since Aliyev has already
violated most of the terms of the 2020 agreement. What assurance can anyone
have that he will respect future agreements? These foreign powers care about only one thing: their
self-interest rather than the national interests of Armenia.
They are pleased that Pashinyan is making repeated
concessions to Azerbaijan,
so that the international community can benefit from Azerbaijan’s oil and gas, while
ignoring Armenian interests and turning a blind eye to Aliyev’s violations of
the human rights of his own people.
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2- ‘Amerikatsi’ Review: Armenia’s
Oscar Submission
Is A
Wayward, Blackly Comic Tale Of Hope
By Damon Wise
(Deadline)—There’s a lot to take in and even more to process
in American-Armenian director Michael Goorjian’s ambitious period piece: What
he’s tilting at here is not beyond the realms of comedy, as Armando Iannucci
proved with his 2017 jet-black satire The Death of Stalin. But tone is crucial,
and Amerikatsi has a waywardness that too often undermines its intent — there’s
a lot that works here and so much that doesn’t. There are moments that are
sensitive, thoughtful, and really quite moving — in an elegant, silent-movie
way — but the framing is so dark in its humor that many viewers may never make
it to them.
In Eastern European literature, the greenhorn caught in the
crosshairs of bureaucracy has long been a staple, and Amerikatsi pushes that
tradition by placing an emigrant American at the heart of its drama. The film
opens in 1915, in what was then the Ottoman Empire, and a young boy named Garo
is sent away in the thick of what he will later come to know as an adult, in
fevered flashbacks, as the Armenian genocide.
The story itself, however, begins 30 years later, following
Josef Stalin’s invitation to survivors of that dark period of history to return
home, now that Armenia is
part of the Soviet Union. After the death of
his wife, Garo — now Charlie (Goorjian), a New Yorker from Poughkeepsie who never quite settled there —
sees his chance to figure out who he really is and sets off to his homeland. By
chance, after saving her son from a mob that swamps a passing bread van, the
first person Charlie meets is Sona, the wife of a high-ranking Soviet general,
who invites him to dinner with her husband Dmitry. Dmitry indulges his wife,
promising to help Charlie find a good job and housing, too. Instead, the
jealous apparatchik secretly arranges to have Charlie arrested, on the grounds
that he is a spy, and sent back to America after a bit of roughing up.
Until now, there’s a goofy quality to Amerikatsi that’s
reminiscent of the self-awareness that sprang up after the fall of the Berlin wall, like the fake supermarket posters in Prague’s Museum
of Communism that say,
“We don’t have it, we’re not open, go and bother someone else.” Charlie, on
account of his “very fancy tie,” is indicted on grounds of spreading propaganda
and the more speculative charge of “cosmopolitanism.” There’s a lot of
dim-witted box-ticking going on (“Filling quotas is always good”), and the visual
presentation — a fusion of Aki Kaurismäki, with its deadpan performances, and
Wes Anderson, in its stylized use of movie grammar — has a lot of fun with
that.
But instead of being let go, Charlie, after a near-miss with
a firing-squad, gets sent to Siberia for 10
years hard labor. As he and others are about to get their marching orders, an
earthquake hits Armenia
and the prisoners are reprieved, but only so they can rebuild the prison walls.
The mood is much darker now; Charlie is beaten, has his head shaved, and is
sent back to his cell with a noose “for the dumb American.” The damage means
that Charlie now has a view; looking out of his prison bars he can see into the
home of an Armenian couple nearby. Living vicariously through their mealtimes,
parties and arguments, Charlie is now inured to the brutality of his everyday
existence and becomes intoxicated by theirs, living a proxy version of the
authentic life he came for.
His Russian captors call him Charlie Chaplin, and with good
reason, since the better part of the film is largely silent, as Charlie absorbs
and gorges on the outside world much like Chaplin did as The Little Tramp in
The Gold Rush. Goorjian is at his best in these scenes, which are the most
effective at expressing the film’s themes of diaspora and identity. The
brutality and cruelty, however, are hard to laugh off, and while it’s clearly
not the film’s intention that we should ever do so, Goorjian’s film asks a lot
of its audience to stay with it as a vehicle for his no doubt heartfelt thoughts
of hope and reconciliation.
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3- Greg Martayan Named Valley
Economic Alliance Vice President
Greg Martayan was tapped to serve
as The Valley Economic Alliance’s Vice President of External Affairs.
The Valley Economic Alliance is a
strategic private-public collaboration comprising governments, corporations,
small businesses, educational institutions, and community organizations whose
mission is to engage and unite behind the principles, policies, and practices
necessary for economic vitality and prosperity.
Bringing together a sustainable
economic future for the five-city San Fernando Valley region, including Burbank, Calabasas, Glendale,
Los Angeles and San Fernando is a top priority. An area of
more than 160,000 businesses, over 2 million residents, and covering more than
400 square miles.
“I look forward to working closely
with the five cities represented in the San Fernando
Valley and their elected officials, to create a more economically
sustainable Valley. In addition, I recognize that small businesses,
corporations, and the entrepreneurial spirit are what drive the Valley, which
is why I want to make sure they know they are heard in the halls of government.
I’m honored to be working with President and CEO Sonya Blake, who has been a
true visionary both for the Valley and the Alliance. The future is bright,” Greg
Martayan said.
“Greg is such an amazing addition
to our administrative team, with his notable and successful service, I know he
will be a great champion for the Valley economy and our partners,” said Sonya
Blake.
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4- 150
Prominent Leaders Demand Release of Armenian Prisoners from Baku Jail
Over 150 Nobel Prize laureates, business leaders, former
heads of state, and humanitarians signed a letter calling for the immediate
release of the Armenian Prisoners in Baku jail,
including eight Armenian political prisoners, who are former leaders of
Nagorno-Karabakh’s government illegally detained following Azerbaijan’s
invasion and seizure of the region in September. Several dozen other prisoners
of war arrested during the conflict also remain in custody. The collective plea
echoes growing concerns over conditions and treatment of these imprisoned
individuals, including prominent Armenian businessman and humanitarian, Ruben
Vardanyan.
“The human rights abuses witnessed in the wake of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict demand urgent attention and action.,” said Noubar
Afeyan, a signatory who is co-founder of the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative.
Afeyan has long collaborated on global and regional economic development and
humanitarian projects with Vardanyan, who has become a symbol of the broader
struggle for political freedom and human dignity in the region. “We call on
President Aliyev to fulfill his obligations to the international rule of law,
ensuring those unjustly imprisoned can return safely to their families,” said
Paul Polman, Vice Chair of the United Nations Global Compact and former CEO of
Unilever. Polman is one of the letter’s signatories, alongside former heads of state,
such as Ernesto Zedillo, former President of Mexico; Mary Robinson, former
President of Ireland; Oscar Arias, former President of Costa Rica and Nobel
Peace Prize Laureate, and Elisha Wiesel, Chairman of the Board of the Elie
Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, and son of the
late Elie Wiesel, former Co-Chair of Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity. Other
prominent signatories represent a wide range of sectors, including Richard
Branson, CEO of Virgin, Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce; Ariana Huffington,
founder of Thrive and The Huffington Post; and Serj Tankian, renowned musician
and lead vocalist of System of a Down. “The unjust detention of Vardanyan and
so many others being held in Baku
violates their basic human rights,” said Mary Robinson, Former UN High
Commissioner of Human Rights.
As asserted in the letter, the detention of Armenian
prisoners is a clear violation of international norms, including the Third
Geneva Convention. In recent weeks, members of the European Parliament and
European Council have pursued a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan and the release of all
illegally held detainees arising from the conflict in Karabakh. In October, the
European Parliament passed a resolution calling on Azerbaijan to release and commit to
a broad amnesty for all the inhabitants of Karabakh who have been arrested
since September 19, including former officials from the region. The European
Parliament has also called for sanctions against the individuals in the Azerbaijani
Government responsible for multiple ceasefire violations and violations of
human rights in Karabakh, as well as investigations into the abuses committed
by Azerbaijani forces that could constitute war crimes.
Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) introduced a resolution
calling on Azerbaijan
to immediately release all prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians currently
detained in the years-long attack on Artsakh. The resolution also calls on
President Biden to impose sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights
Accountability Act on Azerbaijani Government officials responsible for the
illegal detention, torture, and extrajudicial killing of Armenian prisoners of
war, civilian detainees, hostages, political prisoners, and others detained
persons.
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