Author: Albert Nalbandian

The delegation headed by Kenneth G. Forslund, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Kingdom of Sweden, visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial today, accompanied by Artak Zakaryan, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Relations.

Members of the Swedish delegation laid flowers at the memorial to the Armenian Genocide victims and observed a minute of silence in their memory.

The guests visited the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute.

 

 

 

The Armenian Human Rights Defender’s Office has carried out a fact-finding mission to reveal the circumstances of the infringement attempt by Azeri troops at the Armenian state border, near the village of Chinarion December 29, 2016.

Presenting the findings to reporters today, Ombudsman Arman Tatoyan said the attack, which left three Armenian servicemen killed, was carried out under the conditions of no threat to the Azeri side on the part of Armenian forces.

The Ombudsman said there are no military units or any other military objects on the territory of the settlement, which comes to prove that the peaceful population was targeted in the attack.

He said the attacks continued in January, and added that the kindergarten and the school of Chinari were targeted on January 3.

The Ombudsman’s report also refers to the firing in the January 13 firing in the direction of the Voskepar-Baghanis highway.

Arman Tatoyan will visit Strasburg and Brussels next week and will present the report to high-ranking officials from the Council of Europe and other international structures.

 

 

 

The visit of His Holiness Aram I, the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, to Syria was a source of great inspiration for Aleppo Armenians. The Catholicos’ call for reconstruction of Aleppo became a guarantee of restoration and survival for the community.

Avo Avoshyan, lecturer at the Yerevan State University’s Chair of Diaspora Studies, says “it’s hard to estimate the percentage of Armenians that have stayed in Aleppo.”

According to him, there could still be 6-8 thousand Armenians living there despite the cruel five-year war. He’s confident the visit of the Catholicos will inspire Aleppo Armenians to return.

Administrator of the “Aleppo Armenians Facebook page Sosy Mishoyan-Dabbaghian considers that those, who have settled in Armenia or the West, will hardly return to Syria, but believes that the families that have moved to safer places in Syria are likely to return to their homes in Aleppo.

Both hope the support for Aleppo Armenians will be maintained and the community will be reorganized.

His Holiness Aram I visited Syria earlier this month. The Catholicos had a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and representatives of the Armenian community.

His Holiness Aram I celebrated the Christmas Liturgy at the Holy Mother of God Church, assisted on the altar by Archbishop Shahan Sarkissian, the Diocesan Bishop, and Bishop Norayr Ashekian, a member of the brotherhood accompanying the Catholicos.

Catholicos Aram I focussed his sermon on the biblical verse, “Do not be afraid, for God goes with us,” assuring the community of the solidarity of Armenians everywhere. He said that in their history, Armenians have overcome persecutions through their faith in Jesus Christ. He then invited the community to pray that the Good News of the Prince of Peace will renew them in their faith, inspire new hope and fill their lives with the love of God.

In a statement released today, ex-Defense Minister of Armenia Seyran Ohanyan has outlined his views on the Karabakh conflict.

“Armenia has to find a dignified formula of peace with its neighbors, including Azerbaijan,” Seyran Ohanyan said, adding that “all resources and efforts of the Armenian people should be targeted at this purpose.”

“The Artsakh issue is not an obstacle on the way of having a developing and safe Armenian statehood, just the opposite. The opinion that Armenia cannot develop without the soonest resolution of the Karabakh issue is a fundamental mistake or a result of sincere delusion,” the former Defense Minister said.

“We have to develop Armenia to solve the Artsakh issue and ensure lasting peace instead of rapidly solving the Artsakh issue at any cost to ensure Armenia’s development. Unilateral or hasty and unjustified “mutual concessions” will not ensure peace, but will instead increase the possibility of resumption of war,” he added.

“The OSCE Minsk Group, separate states, and primarily, the Russian Federation, the international community are carrying out an important mission, trying to find a formula of peaceful resolution. I think the key to the settlement of the Karabakh issue is in Yerevan and Stepanakert, and the two have to find a way of reaching an agreement with Baku. The Nagorno Karabakh Republic – as a full party to the conflict, has to achieve the international recognition of its sovereignty,” Seyran Ohanyan added.

“I believe the Karabakh issue can be solved in a peaceful way through negotiations. We can reach an agreement with Azerbaijan and have to work in that direction,” he said, adding, however, that “it is hard to achieve tangible progress in the negotiations unless an atmosphere of mutual trust is established.”

Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

 

Engineers and employees from major tech companies — including Google, IBM, Slack, and Stripe — have pledged never to build a database of people based on their religious beliefs.

A group of employees at major tech companies have signed  refusing to help build a Muslim registry. The pledge states that signatories will advocate within their companies to minimize collection and retention of data that could enable ethnic or religious targeting under the Trump administration, to fight any unethical or illegal misuse of data, and to resign from their positions rather than comply.

The group describes themselves as “engineers, designers, business executives, and others whose jobs include managing or processing data about people.”

“We, the undersigned, are employees of tech organizations and companies based in the United States. We are engineers, designers, business executives, and others whose jobs include managing or processing data about people. We are choosing to stand in solidarity with Muslim Americans, immigrants, and all people whose lives and livelihoods are threatened by the incoming administration’s proposed data collection policies. We refuse to build a database of people based on their Constitutionally-protected religious beliefs. We refuse to facilitate mass deportations of people the government believes to be undesirable,” the pledge reads.

“We have educated ourselves on the history of threats like these, and on the roles that technology and technologists played in carrying them out. We see how IBM collaborated to digitize and streamline the Holocaust, contributing to the deaths of six million Jews and millions of others. We recall the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. We recognize that mass deportations precipitated the very atrocity the word genocide was created to describe: the murder of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey. We acknowledge that genocides are not merely a relic of the distant past—among others, Tutsi Rwandans and Bosnian Muslims have been victims in our lifetimes,” the signatories said.

The word Brexit has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the BBC reports.

It defines Brexit as “the (proposed) withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, and the political process associated with it”.

It continues: “Sometimes used specifically with reference to the referendum held in the UK on 23rd June 2016, in which a majority of voters favoured withdrawal from the EU.”

The OED’s senior editor said it became widely used with “impressive” speed.

Craig Leyland said economists started using the word in May 2012, influenced by “Grexit”, which has also been added to the OED, and was used to describe the potential withdrawal of Greece from the Eurozone monetary union.

Photo: Valery Sharifulin/TASS    

Uzbekistan’s interim leader Shavkat Mirziyoyev has become the country’s new president. Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Shavkat Mirziyoyev on his election of Uzbekistan’s president and invited him to pay an official visit to Russia, the Kremlin press service said on Monday after their telephone conversation, TASS reports.

“The Russian president extended his warmest congratulations to Shavkat Mirziyoyev on his convincing victory at Uzbekistan’s presidential elections and wished him every success on this high state post,” the Kremlin said. “Both sides reiterated their plans to further strengthen Russian-Uzbek allied relations of strategic partnership and to expand mutually beneficial cooperation in various spheres.”

“Putin also invited Uzbekistan’s president-elect to pay an official visit to Russia. The invitation was accepted with gratitude,” the press service said.

Early presidential elections were held in Uzbekistan on Sunday. The elections were appointed after the death of Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov on September 2. Four candidates from all Uzbekistan’s officially registered parties vied for presidency. The candidates were acting President and Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev nominated by the Movement of Entrepreneurs and Businessmen/the Liberal Democratic Party; Khatamzhon Ketmonov of the People’s Democratic Party; Sarvar Otamuratov of the Milliy Tiklanich (National Revival) Democratic Party; and Nariman Umarov of the Adolat (Justice) Social Democratic Party.

Chairman of Uzbekistan’s Central Election Commission Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov said earlier on Monday Mirziyoyev is winning the elections with 88.61% of the vote.

Photo: Reuters

US rapper Kanye West h
as been hospitalised following an emergency services call, media reports say,the reports.

A police spokesperson told the BBC they had received a “disturbance call” on Monday afternoon, but did not name the singer.

The disturbance was later deemed a medical incident, he said, and the fire department responded.

A spokesman for the LA Fire Department said an unnamed man had been taken to hospital for “further assessment”.

“At 13:20 pacific time, the Los Angeles Fire Department responded to an unspecified medical aid request,” a spokesperson for the service said.

“An adult male described as medically stable was taken to an area hospital for further assessment.”

By Harut Sassounian
The California Courier

An unprecedented U.S. presidential campaign came to an end with the unexpected victory of Donald Trump!

Since the November 8 elections, there has been endless speculation by self-styled Armenian analysts about the President-elect’s business ties with Azerbaijan and Turkey, wrongly concluding that he would side with Armenia’s enemies! Since Trump has made no comments on Armenian issues, no one can really know what his position is likely to be….

Beyond Trump’s sweeping campaign promises to “drain the swamp in Washington,” and “make America great again,” no one can predict what he might do on domestic or foreign policy fronts. In addition, there is no guarantee that he will stick to the positions he assumed during the campaign. In recent months, and particularly since the election, Trump has moderated his views on a number of major issues, such as banning all Muslims from entering the United States, building a wall along the Mexican border, deporting 11 million illegal aliens, and repealing Obamacare. As Pres. Obama explained during his November 14 press conference, Trump is a pragmatist, not an ideologue with fixed opinions.

Consequently, rather than speculating about what Trump may do as President, let’s follow Hillary Clinton’s wise advice to keep “an open mind” and give Donald Trump “a chance to lead!”

Since the President-elect has not yet taken a concrete position on Armenian issues, now is the time for Armenian-Americans to ask friendly Republican members of Congress to convey the community’s vital concerns to Trump and his team. It would be much more difficult to make such contacts once the President is inaugurated in January and has given his marching orders to the new Cabinet. Meanwhile, Turkish and Azeri officials are busy establishing their own contacts with Trump’s transition team and Congress through their high powered lobbyists in Washington! Furthermore, while many heads of state, including those of Armenia and Azerbaijan, have sent congratulatory messages to the President-elect, Turkish President Erdogan personally telephoned Trump, urging closer ties between their countries!

Already there are warning signs that two of Trump’s closest aides, who may be appointed to top positions in the new administration, are rabid Turkophiles:

1) Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has repeatedly declared his admiration for Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey, viewing him as a hero;

2) Retired Lt. General Michael Flynn wrote an article in The Hill last week, calling on the U.S. government “to adjust our foreign policy to recognize Turkey as a priority. We need to see the world from Turkey’s perspective.”

While Armenian-American ties with the President-elect are practically non-existent, the community has fortunately cultivated excellent relations with many reelected members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, who can adopt bills and pass resolutions on issues of importance to Armenia and Armenians.

Over 90% of the Congressional candidates endorsed by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) were elected on November 8. In the House of Representatives, 117 out of the 122 candidates endorsed by ANCA won their election bids, including Congresswomen Jackie Speier and Anna Eshoo, Armenian-American Democrats from California. Regrettably, Cong. Robert Dold (Republican-Illinois), Co-Chair of the Congressional Armenian Caucus, was not reelected; and candidate Danny Tarkanian (Republican-Nevada) lost his bid for the House.

In the U.S. Senate, 7 of the 11 candidates endorsed by ANCA won their election bids on November 8. Armenian Caucus member Cong. Chris Van Hollen (Democrat-Maryland) was elected to the Senate after defeating Turkish Caucus member Cong. Donna Edwards in the Maryland Primary. Unfortunately, Senator Mark Kirk (Republican-Illinois), a staunch supporter of Armenian issues, was not reelected.

Significantly, while 11 members of the Congressional Armenian Caucus did not return to the House due to failure to win, retirement, resignation or seeking other office, the Turkish Caucus suffered a greater loss, with 19 of its members not returning to the House, including Co-Chair Ed Whitfield (Republican-Kentucky) who resigned earlier this year due to an ethics probe.

The substantial electoral success, enjoyed by Congressional friends of the Armenian community, bodes well for the pursuit of Armenian issues in the new Congress. Given that the Republican Party will be controlling both Houses of Congress and the White House, it is incumbent upon Republican Armenians to win over more members of the majority party, while Democrat Armenians can build on their long-established ties with the minority party. After all, the Armenian Cause, as a nonpartisan issue, should be supported by both parties!

In the run-up to its annual Thanksgiving Day Telethon, titled “My Artsakh,” on November 1, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund launches its SMS donation campaign in Armenia.

By sending an SMS to the number 8000 or by calling 090008000, subscribers of all cell-phone carriers in Armenia can support Artsakh with donations of 300 AMD. The proceeds will be allocated to initiatives for rebuilding war-ravaged Artsakh communities, various measures to ensure the safety and security of the peaceful population, and the construction of homes for large families throughout the republic.

The Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s flagship fundraising event, the Thanksgiving Day Telethon, will be held in Los Angeles on November 24. The SMS as well as donations-through-Haypost campaigns in Armenia will be complemented by fundraising efforts in Artsakh and across the diaspora. From November 16 to 20, the fund’s Pan-European Phoneathon will take place in France, mobilizing the Armenian communities of France, Germany, and Switzerland.

Also participating in the Phoneathon will be the Armenian community of Greece, which will raise funds locally on November 19 and 20.

The first of these events took place in Toronto on October 23, when the local Armenian community raised a record $1 million at its banquet.