California Courier-on-line, Feb. 22, 2024

1-     
Despite His Denials, Aliyev is Upset

By International Criticism of Azerbaijan

By Harut
Sassounian

Publisher,
The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

2- Andrew Goldberg's "Armenia, My Home"
Documentary to Air on PBS

3- A day of love, Armenian style

4- Armenia’s Artur Aleksanyan Crowned European Wrestling
Champion for 7th Time

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1- Despite His Denials, Aliyev is Upset

By International Criticism of Azerbaijan

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

Pres. Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan repeatedly states that he
ignores all international criticisms regarding his violations of the human
rights of his own citizens, war crimes by his soldiers, and ethnic cleansing of
Artsakh Armenians. Aliyev tries to cover up these violations and crimes through
‘Caviar diplomacy,’ by providing billions of dollars in bribes to various
European officials.

Anytime Azerbaijan has a problem with a foreign country,
Europeans institutions or international courts, he puts on a brave face and
acts like nothing has happened. He repeatedly says, “I don’t care who says
what, I will do what I want.”

I would like to cite a recent example of Aliyev being so
bothered by such issues that, rather than ignoring them, has gone to unusual
lengths to resolve them.

This example has to do with France. In recent months, Aliyev
has been quite outspoken with his harsh criticism of French President Emmanuel
Macron for supporting Armenia. Aliyev has refused to meet with Pres. Macron and
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to discuss the Artsakh conflict. Aliyev also
complained about France selling a number of armored personnel carriers to
Armenia. While spending billions of dollars to arm Azerbaijan with the latest
Israeli and Turkish drones and missiles, Aliyev dares to complain about Armenia
procuring a limited number of arms to defend itself.

Late last year, the Azerbaijan-France confrontation got more
heated when Azerbaijan expelled two French embassy officials from Baku and in
return France expelled two Azeri embassy officials from Paris.

The Intelligence Online website reported that, according to
its confidential sources, Azerbaijan’s intelligence services asked Mossad,
Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, to intervene with
France to resolve their outstanding conflicts.

According to confidential Mossad sources, Azerbaijan’s
Foreign Intelligence Service (XKX), led by General Orkhan Sultanov, asked his
counterpart in Israel to intervene with the General Directorate of External
Security (DGSE) of France to deescalate the tension between Baku and Paris.
Azerbaijan indicated that it would not want to worsen the existing dispute.

However, the Azeri effort failed, as Mossad did not transmit
the Azeri request to France, according to Intelligence Online sources. This was
a delicate issue for Israel as it wanted on one hand to preserve its good
relations with Azerbaijan, while on the other hand Israel’s intelligence agency
did not want to attempt such mediation at a time when it was preoccupied with
the conflict in Gaza and other Middle Eastern hot spots.

Intelligence Online reported that Mossad enjoys a high
degree of influence over Baku, since Israel uses the Azeri territory for its
operations in Iran. When Mossad stole Iran’s nuclear documents from Tehran in
2018, Israel’s agents used Azerbaijan’s border to flee from Iran. In return,
Mossad greatly facilitated Azerbaijan’s acquisition of sophisticated weapons
from Israel, which aided Baku, the second largest buyer of Israeli arms, to score
victories in 2020 and 2023 in Artsakh. Just before the attack on Artsakh in
September 2023, Azerbaijan’s security services informed the experts of Mossad
and Unit 8200 (Aman) of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate of their
plans and sought their advice.

According to Intelligence Online, Mossad has in recent years
brought its cooperation with the French External Security Directorate to a
higher operational level, notably on Iran. The French Agency has also been
mobilized over the situation in Gaza.

The new director of French Intelligence Agency, Nicolas
Lerner, met with David Barnea, the director of Mossad when the latter came to
Paris in the last week of January. Attending the closed-door meeting on the
Israeli-Palestinian issue were Abbas Kamel, head of the Egyptian General
Intelligence Directorate (Mukhabarat el-amma); Ronen Bar, head of Shin Bet,
Israel’s Internal Security Agency; William Barnes, head of the CIA; and Qatari
officials.

Intelligence Online importantly reported that the CIA let
Baku know that it was not pleased with Azerbaijan’s conflict with French
Intelligence, while France is trying to hinder Moscow in the Caucasus and needs
Azerbaijan’s platform.

Having exposed Aliyev’s deception about ignoring
international pressure on Azerbaijan, my advice to the international community
is to continue pressuring Aliyev to stop his unacceptable behavior. Otherwise,
he will go on with his multitude of ever-increasing violations and crimes,
causing great harm to Azeris and Armenians alike.

Next week, I will expose another one of Aliyev’s efforts to
counter international pressures on Azerbaijan, despite his denials of not
paying any attention to them.

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2-     
Andrew Goldberg's "Armenia, My Home"
Documentary to Air on PBS

Directed by So Much Film’s Andrew Goldberg and narrated by
Andrea Martin (Only Murders in the Building), the upcoming documentary Armenia,
My Home explores the storied country’s past and present. Through interviews
with familiar faces from the diaspora, archival photographs and rich footage of
the nation known for fusing the East and West, the doc delves into the
modern-day Republic of Armenia’s unique cultural tapestry, which spans
thousands of years.

TV Real Weekly spoke to Goldberg about what prompted the
film, sifting through mountains of history for what shines through, the
partnership between So Much Film and PBS and more. Armenia, My Home is set to
bow on PBS stations on February 23.

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3- A day of love, Armenian style

Gyumri, ARMENIA – Newlyweds in Gyumri, Armenia got all fired
up about their traditional spring event, Trndez.

The whole town has been preparing for a few days now for the
big firelit night held February 13th in celebration of prosperity, love, spring
and renewal.

Trndez is an Armenian apostolic holiday, where newlywed
couples traditionally jump above a bonfire for a long and prosperous marriage.

A few hundred people gathered on Vartanants Square, the
central square of Gyumri, at 5 p.m. and formed a circle around a big pile of
hay. As more people joined, old women, parents and their children threw flower
crowns and other plants on top of the hay.

“It’s meant for happiness in the family and health for the
following year,” said Tamara Hovannissian, an Armenian language teacher in Gyumri,
who attended the event.

Hovannissian said the flowers and plants might be a reminder
of the olive branches that were brought with Jesus to the temple of Jerusalem
40 days after his birth, according to Armenian apostolic belief.

She also said that normally, families get those flowers
during Easter of the previous year. They keep them in their house all year and
burn them on Trndez to keep sicknesses away.

At 5:40 p.m. the crowd was split in half to make way for the
priests coming from the Cathedral of the Holy Mother of God, on Vartanants
Square.

A compact horde of eager old women quickly followed them to
get closer to the center of the circle. A few unfriendly looks and irritated
Armenian comments later, everyone was ready for the ceremony.

Children were placed on the inner circle, holding each other
by the pinkie.

The priests sang and read the prayers to the sound of the
cathedral bells. Separated into two groups with different attire, they spun
around the hay as they recited prayers.

“It does not symbolize anything” about the meaning of the
mysterious choreography, said Hovannissian, who is an Armenian and French
language teacher in Gyumri.

Women, men and children all made the sign of the cross in
unison all throughout the ceremony.

One of the priests then took a long torch, lit it with a
candle and then ignited the hay all over. As it caught fire, the crowd seemed
to reorganize itself.

All decked out in green t-shirts made for the occasion,
members of Hrayrk, a traditional dance group based in Gyumri, came to the front
with loud enthusiastic shouts. Music seemed to start blurting out from the
ground. The front-liners of the circle started dancing around a blaze that
reached about two meters higher than them.

Temperature rose as fast as spirits as children and young
people started to dance and shout.

But as people kept spinning, they grew dangerously close to
the fire and a group of men urged the crowd to keep away.

And then the fire started turning into ashes. The dances
stopped and the women rushed to the fire to light candles from the flames and
to collect the ashes.

“The light is illumination,” said Varduhi Harutyunyan, a
local holding a candle to her heart.

Harutyunyan, who was born and raised in Gyumri, explained
that Trndez is celebrated “40 days after the birth of Jesus Christ” when he
was, according to Armenian apostolic belief, taken to the temple of Jerusalem
and purified.

“We also do it on Christmas Eve,” she said, which in Armenia
is celebrated on January 5th.

“The ashes are for under the trees and flowers,” said
Harutyunyan, “for blessing the plants and for a good harvest.” They are meant
for “unity, no war, and peace in the world.”

Candles like hers – held inside a Coca-Cola plastic bottle
cut in half – were sold around the square by local residents.

The crowd, which had scattered across the square, came back
together to start the jumping part of the ceremony. Children, couples,
grandparents and toddlers started jumping in pairs and creating a human tunnel
with their arms for following jumpers.

New couples and newly married people are most likely to jump
over the fire, said Arsen Sahakyan, who works at a marketing and creative lab
in Gyumri.

Locals believe that the couples who got married that year
should jump over the fire to be happy, healthy, blessed and purified.

“During the wedding, it makes it so it brings happiness,”
said Hovannissian. She added that “it’s mandatory” for the fire to touch the
couple’s legs while they are jumping, for it to bring happiness.

Matthew Elyan, an Armenian American who was present at the
ceremony, said he once celebrated Trndez in Los Angeles, where he is from. He
remembered jumping over a fire in what was “similar to a marshmallow stove.

“Actually jumping over the fire is not really common,” Elyan
said, of celebrating Trndez in Los Angeles. “We have to change that. We’ll buy
some more stoves.”

Trndez wasn’t always celebrated as it is today though, said
Sahakyan.

When Armenia became Christian, the church reclaimed this
tradition to mark a clear break with pre-fourth century polytheistic customs.

“They had a mission to kill other religion stuff,” Sahakyan
said. “They started to jump over the fire to say that ‘we are over that other
god.’”

Instead, Trndez used to be a pagan celebration for the god
of fire in ancient polytheist Armenia.

Back then, Sahakyan said, there was “no jumping, just
celebrating.”

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4- Armenia’s Artur Aleksanyan Crowned European Wrestling
Champion for 7th Time

Armenian Greco-Roman wrestler Artur Aleksanyan beat Russia’s
Magomed Murtazaliyev in the finals of the European Wresting Championships in
Bucharest, Romania, becoming the champion for the seventh time.

Aleksanyan made it to the finals, defeating Belarusian
Abubakar Khaslakhanav in the semi-finals with a score of 5 to 1. He started the
competition, beating Beitula Kaisdagin of Turkey 9 to 1, and in the
quarterfinals he won а 8 to 3 victory over Dutch Tyrone Stenkerburg.

Earlier, member of the Armenian national team Malkhas Amoyan
was crowned European champion for the third time in his career, achieving a 7
to 0 advantage in the finals over the world bronze medalist, two-time European
vice-champion, Turkish Yunus Basar.

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