1 - Top Economist Exposes Erdogan’s
Lies on Bankrupt Turkish Economy
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Armenian Health Minister Apologizes for
Mishandling of Fallen Soldiers’ Corpses
3 - Foreign Minister of Armenia Ara Ayvazyan Resigns
4- Azerbaijan Approves Turkish school in Shushi; Erdogan to
attend groundbreaking
6- New type of Dutch tulip named after Mount Aragats
7- Nevada governor signs Holocaust, Armenian Genocide
education bill into law
8- Armenian church in Boyle Heights sees a post-pandemic revival
9- Armenia’s YouTube booms with Fake News
10- AEF Accepting Applications For Tufenkian Scholarship
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1 - Top Economist Exposes Erdogan’s
Lies on Bankrupt Turkish Economy
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is completely ignorant about
economics, met with the Chief Executive Officers of 26 major American
companies and told them many falsehoods about the Turkish economy. The
reality is that the Turkish economy is bankrupt and millions of
Turkish citizens are on the verge of starvation, while the coronavirus
is raging like wildfire, making Turkey the fifth largest country in
the world in terms of infections.
Here are some of the lies Erdogan told the American CEO’s:
“None of the problems experienced in many countries and the
disruptions in the supply chain have been experienced in Turkey. At a
time when many economies in the world came to a standstill, we
continued our investments in both the public and private sectors.
“Thanks to the efforts of our private sector, the support of our state
and dynamic epidemic measures, our economy closed 2020 with growth.
With a rate of 1.8%, we became the country with the highest growth in
the G-20 after China.
“Despite the serious economic contraction in our traditional export
markets and the contraction in foreign demand, we reached an export
figure of $170 billion. The trade volume between Turkey and the United
States increased by 4 percent and exceeded $21 billion.
“In the January-April period of 2021, our exports increased by 33.1
percent compared to last year.
“Our industrial production increased by 12.3% in the first quarter of
2021 compared to the same quarter of the previous year. We also
observe a significant increase in investment demand in Turkey.
“The total direct investments of the United States in Turkey reached
$13 billion, while the investments of Turkish companies in the United
States reached $7.2 billion. I would like to thank all American
companies who trust Turkey and the Turkish economy.”
Surprisingly, Erdogan then decided to tell the American CEO’s of Pres.
Joe Biden’s acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide on April 24, thus
informing them of the horrible mass crimes committed by Ottoman Turkey
against the Armenians.
“Even though President Biden’s statement about the 1915 events puts an
additional burden on our relations, I believe that the meeting we will
hold with Mr. Biden at the NATO Summit [in June] will herald a new
era,” Erdogan stated hopingly.
Erdogan then contradicted his many cruel, inhuman, anti-Semitic and
racist public statements and policies by claiming: “We have never, and
never will, allow distorted mentalities such as xenophobia,
anti-Semitism, and racism to find ground in our society. We resolutely
continue our efforts to reform the economy, freedoms, laws and justice
according to changing conditions and needs. We presented our Human
Rights Action Plan and our Economy Reform package to the public.”
Here is the list of the CEO’s that Erdogan met with:
Cargill, David Webster, Senior Vice President – Food Ingredients and
Bio Industrial Ventures; DowAksa, Douglas Parks, CEO; Hilton, Chris
Nassetta, President and CEO; MetLife, Nuria Garcia, President —
Europe, Middle East and Africa; Netflix, Spencer Neumann, CFO; Boeing
Commercial Airplanes, Stan Deal, CEO; Kellogg Company, Steven
Cahillane, President and CEO; Google, Karan Bhatia, Vice President –
Public Policy, Europe, Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific; GE
Aviation, John Slattery, President and CEO; Varian Medical Systems,
Chris Toth, CEO; PepsiCo, Silviu Popovici, CEO Europe; Amazon, Susan
Pointer, Vice President — Public Policy; Cheniere Energy, Anatol
Feygin, CCO; Citi, David Livingstone, President and CEO — Europe,
Middle East and Africa; Procter & Gamble, Loic Tassel, President —
Europe; Progress Rail, Marty Haycraft, President and CEO; Tellurian
Inc., Octavio Simoes, President and CEO; Medtronic, Rob ten Hoedt,
Senior Vice President and Head of Europe; Archer Daniels Midland,
Ismail Roig, President — Europe, Middle East and Africa; Microsoft,
Samer Abu Ltaif, Corporate Vice President — Head of Europe and Middle
East; Cisco, Michael Timmeny, Senior Vice President and Head of
Corporate Strategy; Honeywell Aerospace, Mike Madsen, President and
CEO; Nova Power Solutions, Steve Ziff, President and CEO; The
Coca-Cola Company, Jenny Stoichkova, President — Europe and the
Middle East; Johnson & Johnson, Giorgio Milesi, President — Emerging
Markets; and Baker Hughes, Zaher Ibrahim, Vice President — Middle
East, Turkey, North Africa.
Let us now turn to one of the top economists in the world, Daron
Acemoglu, an Armenian born in Turkey, who is now Professor of
Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. His name
is often mentioned as a future Nobel Prize nominee.
During a video interview, Acemoglu directly contradicted Erdogan’s
propagandistic picture of the Turkish economy, by stating: “I have
great fear the economic crisis may deepen in Turkey.”
Here are excerpts from Acemoglu’s description of the deplorable
condition of the economy in Turkey:
“When Turkey went to the presidential election and all the power
gathered in the palace, it had a great impact on the economic policy.
“These nationalist and authoritarian populist regimes or these
movements generally weaken state capacity when they come to power.
This is both a strategy and something they do unintentionally because
they can’t rule legally. We see this in India, Brazil, Turkey, Russia,
and Hungary.”
“The countries where the most people died from the coronavirus in the
world were Brazil, Turkey, India, Russia and populist authoritarian
regimes such as America during the Trump administration.
“Turkey has been experiencing the most critical economic crises in the
last five years. There were major crises that started not only after
the pandemic, but also before the pandemic. The increase in debts, the
worsening of balance sheets, could a correct result be brought against
them? No. Why? There are few people in the bureaucracy who can deal
with the economy properly and improve it. Especially the cadres
established under Berat Albayrak [Minister of Economy and Treasury and
Erdogan’s son-in-law] could not bring the right approach to what needs
to be done. Democracy has many advantages over dictatorships and
authoritarian systems. But one of the biggest advantages is their
tendency to keep the biggest mistakes, talents and incompetence in the
lead, is much weaker. Especially when the presidential election in
Turkey and all power gathered in the Palace, this had a great impact
on the economic policy.
“Especially in the last five years, unemployment and inequality have
reached very high levels [in Turkey].
“Shopping malls and construction companies, which have had a huge
problem in their balance sheet for five years, are still standing. How
long will they be able to stand? What will be the effects on banks?
How long will we be able to keep the interest rate policy this way,
while our reserves have decreased so much? These dimensions are likely
to go much more negative. These problems are not only in Turkey, there
are problems in other parts as well, but wherever you see these
problems, you see the role of decisions not to manage the economy
correctly.”
I hope the American CEO’s will pay more attention to Acemoglu’s
accurate assessment than to Erdogan’s propaganda which has led Turkey
to economic disaster.
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2- Armenian Health Minister Apologizes for
Mishandling of Fallen Soldiers’ Corpses
By Emilio Luciano Cricchio
(Civilnet)—Acting Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan has apologized for
the improper handling of the preservation of the bodies of servicemen
who were killed in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War. On May 31, photos
emerged online of a crowded room filled with body bags on the floor
that carried the remains of Armenian servicemen. It was later
confirmed that the photo was taken at a morgue in the city of Abovyan.
Avanesyan expressed regret for not personally visiting the morgues in
question after bodies had been moved there. “I assure you that in the
last year the Forensic Medical Center has done its best to ensure
proper forensic medical examinations and identification processes,”
Avanesyan wrote on Facebook.
Earlier, the Health Ministry announced that it would launch an
official investigation into the improper storage conditions of the
bodies of fallen servicemen.
On June 1, the Health Ministry published new data from the Forensic
Medical Center regarding the identification of corpses. The ministry
assured that there are no bodies which have not been identified.
According to the ministry’s statement however, there are about 50
bodies which forensicists have been unable to separate DNA from. In
addition to this, about 149 bodies did not match the DNA of their
relatives.
Mane Gevorgyan, the spokeswoman for Acting Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan, told Armenpress news agency that the Abovyan morgue case
was inadmissible, and that the prime minister has ordered an official
investigation to be launched to uncover those responsible.
“All measures will be taken to hold the officials in question
accountable,” said Gevorgyan.
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3 - Foreign Minister of Armenia Ara Ayvazyan Resigns
Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ara AYvazyan submitted his resignation on
Thursday, May 27, on the same day as six Armenian soldiers were taken
hostage by Azerbaijani forces aggravating an already tense standoff at
the Armenian border, which was breached by Azerbaijan on May 12 and
its forces advanced into Armenia’s Syunik and Gegharkunik provinces.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan made the announcement
without elaborating on the circumstance.
Aivazyan attended a National Security Council meeting late Thursday
and hosted Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday,
May 26. It appears that Aivazyan submitted his resignation after the
security council meeting.
Aivazyan assumed the role of foreign minister on November 18 after
former Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatzakanyan resigned.
During the security council meeting late Thursday, May 27, Pashinyan
proposed that all Armenian and Azerbaijani forces pull back from their
respective positions along the border and deploy international
monitors, which could be from Russia or the other OSCE Minsk Group
co-chairing countries — the United States and France.
“This can be considered an official request to Russia, the OSCE Minsk
Group Co-Chairing countries and Azerbaijan,” said Pashinyan. “I hope
this offer will be accepted. After having studied the situation on the
ground, I’m confident this is the shortest, the most effective and
reasonable option.”
“The situation is tense and it is escalating,” said Pashinyan at the
security council meeting, which was called after Azerbaijani forces
did not comply with a deadline set forth by Yerevan to immediately
return the six Armenian soldiers captured on Thursday.
“My assessment is that if the situation is not settled, this
provocation may lead to large-scale clashes,” Pashinyan stated.
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4- Azerbaijan Approves Turkish school in Shushi; Erdogan to
attend groundbreaking Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet
Bahceli announced that the Azerbaijan government reversed its decision
and accepted the MHP’s school project in Shushi, Artsakh. The school
project will be funded by the ultranationalist Grey Wolves movement of
MHP. France had banned the Grey Wolves, declaring it to be a terrorist
group.
Bahçeli said, “We committed to build a nine-classroom school in
Shushi. We prepared our project and shared it with the public. We are
thinking of naming the school we wanted to build after the composer of
the Azerbaijan National Anthem and the late Üzeyir Hajibeyli, who was
born in Shushi. We had planned January 30, 2021 as the groundbreaking
day of the school in question. However, the Azerbaijan government did
not approve our project and prepared a new and different school
project.” The Azerbaijan government then changed its decision and
approved the school project.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to go to Baku on June 15
and the next day will visit Shushi and attend the school’s
groundbreaking ceremony.
President Erdogan will arrive in Baku on June 15 and the following day
will visit Artsakh’s occupied Shushi to take part in a groundbreaking
ceremony of a school being funded and built by Turkey and its
ultranationalist group the Grey Wolves.
Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev announced Erdogan’s pending visit
after a meeting with Turkey’s Education Minister Zia Seljuk,
Azatutyun.am’s Armenian Service reported on Thursday. Plans to build
and operate a school in Shushi by Turkey’s ultranationalist Grey
Wolves were announced earlier and an official Turkish delegation
visited Baku and met with Azerbaijan’s leadership to plan out the
process. France has banned the Grey Wolves, emphasizing that the
organization’s ultranationalist ideology promotes and spreads racism
and hatred, adding that the group’s members have engaged in terrorist
activities in the country.
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5- Armenia Continues Fight Against COVID-19
Armenian health officials are sounding the alarm of a third wave of
COVID-19 cases just as the country commences the vaccination phase.
There were 4,717 active cases in Armenia as of June 3. Armenia has
recorded 222,978 coronavirus cases and 4,448 deaths; 213,813 have
recovered. ***********************************************************************************************************************************************
6- New type of Dutch tulip named after Mount Aragats
(Public Radio of Armenia)—A new type of white Dutch tulip has been
named after Aragats Mountain on the occasion of Armenia’s Republic Day
and on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Armenia’s independence, the
Armenian Embassy in the Netherlands informed on May 28. The tulip has
been developed and grown within seven years by Maveridge Floriculture
Company. It symbolizes the snow peaks of Armenia’s highest
mountain.The flower-naming ceremony took place at the Maveridge
headquarters, where Armenia’s Ambassador Tigran Balayan, Head of
Pineacher Helps Armenia Fund Henry Boss, and Owner of Maveridge Klaas
Peter De Geus signed the statement on flower-naming.
Ambassador Tigran Balayan toured the company, got acquainted with the
latter’s activities and achievements. The possibilities of
implementing new joint programs and establishing production in Armenia
were discussed.
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7- Nevada governor signs Holocaust, Armenian Genocide
education bill into law
A bill strengthening and mandating Holocaust and Armenian Genocide
education in Nevada, which passed both houses of the state legislature
with unanimous support, was signed into law by Nevada Governor Sisolak
on May 31. Assembly Bill (AB) 231’s passing is timely with U.S.
President Joe Biden’s unprecedented acknowledgement, affirmation and
unequivocal use of the term “Armenian Genocide” after the 2019 passage
by the U.S. Congress. AB 231 is bipartisan legislation sponsored by
Assemblywoman Lesley Cohen and Lisa Krasner and supported by
Lieutenant Governor Kate Marshall. ANCA-Nevada Co-Chair Lenna
Hovanessian, Esq. spearheaded the bill with the Israeli-American Civic
Action Network (ICAN) and the sponsorship of Lt. Governor Marshall, a
strong proponent for inclusion of the Genocide, with relentless
advocacy by Hovanessian, local and regional, ANCA, and the Nevada
Armenian-American community.
“Education about the Genocide is central to the Armenian community’s
identity, and teaching about the Genocide in a historically accurate
way in Nevada’s high school classrooms through this legislation
ensures that our history will not be forgotten. Through this
legislation we will combat denialism, hate and bigotry by raising a
generation of global citizens in Nevada who are aware of the world
around them,” said Hovanessian. “In the context of the last 106 years
since the Armenian Genocide and the 2020 genocidal War on Artsakh by
Azerbaijan and Turkey- the self-proclaimed ‘one nation, two states’ –
and recent invasion into Armenia’s borders, it is imperative to
educate the next generation of students who will be leaders to
understand history and empower them with accurate, comprehensive and
worldly knowledge to promote zero-tolerance for hate and bigotry.”
The new law establishes an education committee within the Nevada
Department of Education to evaluate curriculum standards, inventory
classroom materials, and assess instructor training needs. In addition
to education relating to the Holocaust, the bill also includes
teaching of the Armenian Genocide, as well as Cambodian, Darfur,
Guatemalan, and Rwandan genocides.
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8- Armenian church in Boyle Heights sees a post-pandemic revival
By Priscella Vega
On the outskirts of Boyle Heights, a remnant of the neighborhood’s
historic Armenian past is having a revival.
The faithful are traveling from as far away as Simi Valley and
Cerritos to pray at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, a church once deemed
the center of Catholic Armenian life in Los Angeles.
Founded in 1952, the church hosted about 400 parishioners weekly in
its heyday. The facility celebrated Mass for Armenians in their native
tongue, and its cultural center once served as a place to learn about
their homeland from local guest speakers.
But over the decades, the cream-colored church’s prominence has been
overshadowed by St. Gregory’s cathedral in Glendale.
Nearly all Armenians who once settled in the blocks bordered by
Pleasant Avenue and Echandia Street to Prospect Park and Bridge Street
have died or moved to more affluent neighborhoods, such as Glendale
and Pasadena. And loyal churchgoers more recently were temporarily
shut out when Queen of Martyrs closed its doors because of public
health orders linked to COVID-19.
Yet amid a year marked by record deaths, unbearable grief and economic
uncertainty, the pandemic has unexpectedly found a way to breathe new
life into this weathered house of worship.
Longtime parishioners are slowly returning to sit in their
self-designated, creaky pews. The Rev. Armenag Bedrossian, the
church’s sole pastor, is again hosting coffee and lunch after Sunday
services. And he’s seeing new, younger faces in the crowd — albeit
ones who are wearing face masks.
Father Armenag Bedrossian leads a Sunday service at Our Lady Queen of
Martyrs Church in Boyle Heights.
“People want to come back,” Bedrossian said. “I think the pandemic was
like a spiritual retreat for them to think. It puts them on top of a
hill. Either you are close with God or you’re going to fall on your
head. Which one [are] you like?”
Armenian culture has all but disappeared from the area. Southern
California Armenians are more known for their enclaves in Burbank and
Montebello.
“The center of Armenian life has shifted to Hollywood, Glendale and
Orange County,” said Levon Marashlian, an Armenian historian and
professor at Glendale Community College. “It happens to other
communities; they move around, and new patterns develop.”
Surrounded by single-family homes and apartment complexes along
Pleasant Avenue, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs is again hosting sizeable
numbers of Armenians on Sundays. Mass is being celebrated inside after
a series of modified, outdoor services to comply with coronavirus
safety guidelines. Sunday school has resumed for children too.
“We survived,” said Catherine Alekian Hosharian, 77, a Montebello
resident who joined the church when she was 10. “And things have
gotten better.”
Most feel a dedication to the parish because of the legacy it carries.
After years without a proper spiritual home, Catholic Armenians
created a place of unity to call their own.
“Because Armenians are living outside of Armenia, no matter what
denomination, church is not just for religion,” Marashlian said. “It’s
a cultural meaning. It’s repository.”
“We feel like it’s our home,” said Alekian Hosharian, a member of the
Ladies Guild, the church’s main source of financial support. “Even
though our children don’t come to church, if you ask them, [they’ll
say], ‘That’s our church,’ or [they’ll] come if they need a baptism or
wedding.”
Simon Hablian, 40, has attended Our Lady Queen Of Martyrs since he was
a boy. He remembers his parents and grandmother taking him and his
sister to the historic building because it was the closest Armenian
Catholic Church to their Glendale home.
Now, the Simi Valley resident bundles his three children into the car
every Sunday and drives nearly an hour to attend Mass in downtown L.A.
“It can be any Catholic church, but this one I feel connected to,” he
said. “It’s a place I always come to feel peaceful. I love it with all
my heart.”
His children were baptized at Queen of Martyrs, just like he was. As
one of the younger worshipers, Hablian said he’s pleased to see fresh,
new faces.
Among the new parishioners are the Vallefuocos, who fell in love with
the resurgent church community a few months ago. They were part of a
close friend’s intimate wedding ceremony at the church that was
officiated by Bedrossian. Spiritually, something clicked. And
Bedrossian’s boisterous demeanor hooked them.
They aren’t practicing Catholics or Armenian and don’t know the
language. But “we fell in love with Father David,” Cerritos resident
Anna Vallefuoco, 43, said. Her two children recently completed their
confirmation and have scheduled their first Communion.
“Even in Armenian, a lot of it transcends language. It doesn’t matter
if it’s in a different language. I still understand the meaning and
tone,” she said.
Lately, there’s been plenty to celebrate at the Boyle Heights house of worship.
The pandemic is receding. Churchgoers celebrated Armenian Easter on
April 4. Three weeks later, President Biden formally recognized the
killing of more than 1 million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks
beginning in 1915 as genocide — the first U.S. president to do so. The
acknowledgement served as a balm amid decades of geopolitical
infighting.
It feels like “resurrection,” Bedrossian said.
The pastor has acted as the glue for the weathered church, although
his faith has been tested.
By the time the new decade dawned, doubt had crept into his soul. The
future seemed bleak. His congregation kept aging. What would happen to
this church where he had dedicated so much time? It wouldn’t last much
longer, he worried.
But now he doesn’t entertain such thoughts and balks at the memory. He
is also a changed man, reformed by the intense uncertainty of the
pandemic. He is confident in God’s plan and his congregants.
“I always had faith in this community. Otherwise, I would never
survive here for 10 years,” he said.
This article appeared in Los Angeles Times appeared on May 23, 2021.
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9- Armenia’s YouTube booms with Fake News
By Saten Yeghianazarian
(Jam News)—In recent years, YouTube has become one of the most popular
internet platforms in Armenia, and the Armenian-speaking audience is
not only a consumer but also a content creator there. Political
YouTube channels have a very large audience and both the country’s
most prominent news agencies and private channels producing dubious
content attract thousands of viewers and subscribers.
There are seven Armenian-language YouTube channels that started
operating in 2018-2020 and are now gaining millions of views. Among
them are Perfect TV, The Great Armenia, ArmNkr news, New Channel TV,
SHD ARM TV, 8rd.am, amenor am.
These channels, as a rule, do not provide accurate information. On the
contrary, they spread false and outdated information, constantly using
decoy headlines (clickbaits), to try and attract as many views as
possible.
This channel was created on September 7, 2019, and released its first
video on July 19, 2020. Since the creation of the channel, the number
of its views has reached 54 million and 103,000 have subscribed to it.
There is no information about the founder, activity, or feedback on
the page. The only information that can be found in the “About Us”
section is a quote of the Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents.
This channel spreads false information in both the headlines and
source material, quoting famous people on something that they never
said.
Here are some of the typical headlines of The Great Armenia YouTube
channel: “Biden’s granddaughter about Armenians: I admire them”;
“Listen, you madman – how Soloviev humiliated Aliyev”; “Aliyev, I’ll
say it to your face – Malakhov disgraced Aliyev”;” Pugacheva asked
Putin to help Armenians”; “URGENT: Turks attacked the house of Kim
[Kardashian]”.
The majority of the channel’s content revolves around prominent public
figures criticizing Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and praising Armenians. However, in
reality, no such statements have ever been made by any of the people
that the channel cites, and the channel creators are simply using
clickbaits and controversial material to obtain more views.
Hundreds of comments under each of The Great America’s videos show
that the channel’s target audience is Armenian-speaking users in
Russia and Armenia.
The content produced by every single one of these YouTube channels is
almost identical: decoy headlines are first followed by a voiceover
stating some false information, and then the video changes abruptly to
showcase posts, messages, or lives on Facebook. For example, one of
the videos of ArmNkr news claims that when US President Biden utters
the phrase “Armenian genocide”, Turkey will be obliged to pay Armenia
$ 10 billion in compensations Armenia and the issue of returning
Armenian territories will also be discussed.
The New Channel TV video with a caption “URGENT! Nikola is being
attacked right now!” consists of random Facebook posts that have
nothing to do with the headline of the video. Another New Channel TV
video states that the son of US President Biden announced that his
future wife is an Armenian woman named Gohar Mazmanyan. t is
noteworthy that the ArmNkr news and New Channel TV videos are voiced
by the same female voice. The same voice can be heard on the SHD ARM
TV channel of a similarly dubious origin and with identical content
posted with slightly amended captions.
A link to Nvideo Only1’s Facebook page was posted on the 8rd news
channel for feedback. After examining this page, one will have no
doubts that all of the YouTube channels mentioned above are operated
by the same people.
Nvideo Only1 Facebook page is also sharing the content created by
other YouTube channels of similar nature, such as ARM TV, amenor am,
ArmTrue and New chennel. Research has shown that the aforementioned
YouTube channels are owned by a user named Shavarsh Sarukhanyan.
Sarukhanyan’s Facebook page states that he is the founder of Nvideo
Only1, and in a post on April 21, he states that ArmNkr news is the
third most-viewed YouTube channel in Armenia.
Responding to the accusations against him on his Facebook live,
Sarukhanyan said that he manages other channels besides 8rd news,
adding that his videos are pro-government oriented, but this is
exclusively the position of him and his team, adding that they are not
working under anyone’s orders.
Perfect TV is the most popular news channel in this category, the
audience of which increased significantly after PM Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinyan shared one of the channel’s videos on his
Facebook page on September 1, 2019.
Several media outlets tried to find a connection between the
government and Pashinyan in particular, and the Perfect TV channel,
claiming that the prime minister could be funding it. In 2019,
infocheck.am found out the name of the owner of Perfect TV – Vigen
Sukiasyan, whose email address was indicated for Perfect TV’s YouTube
feedback.
Infocheck.am contacted Vigen Sukiasyan, who showed his passport, and
also provided a financial analysis of the channel, disclosing just how
much money he made on YouTube thanks to views and likes on his
channel. Sukiasyan did, therefore, prove that he makes money with the
help of YouTube mechanisms and is not funded by the state.
Video materials of the YouTube channel, which is hosted by Sukiasyan,
have been viewed by about 200 million people, attracted by decoy
headlines and disinformation spread by the videos.
Having analyzed the most popular political YouTube channels we have
concluded that the channel owners take advantage of the fact that the
majority of Armenian-speaking users are interested in politics, but do
not have sufficient media literacy to distinguish a reliable source
from one spreading false information, therefore allowing such channels
to make profit.
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10- AEF Accepting Applications For Tufenkian Scholarship
GLENDALE—The Armenian Educational Foundation (AEF) announced that it
is still accepting applications for the Richard R. Tufenkian
Scholarships for the 2021 – 2022 academic year. Three $3,000
scholarships will be awarded to Armenian undergraduate students at an
accredited United States college or university. To qualify for this
scholarship, students must be of Armenian descent, have a minimum 3.0
GPA, show financial need, and be actively involved in the Armenian
community.
Students who meet the above criteria should visit www.aefweb.org for
more information and to apply.
All scholarships must be submitted by June 30, 2021. Official
transcripts can be mailed to the AEF office or emailed directly from
the University to [email protected].
The Richard R. Tufenkian Scholarship Fund was established in 1991 by
Ralph and Savey Tufenkian in memory of their son. The $230,000 endowed
fund has provided over $500,000 in scholarships since 1991. Currently,
three $3,000 undergraduate scholarships are awarded each year in the
U.S. and five full tuition scholarships for students attending public
universities in Armenia.
Students interested in applying for the scholarship should contact the
AEF office at [email protected] or (818)242-4154.
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