Author: Ani Basmajian

Asbarez: Sarkis Tatigian, Longest-Serving Defense Department Civil Servant, Dies

Ani Basmajian
April 9, 2020

Portrait of Sarkis Tatigian in Bldg. 197 at the Washington Navy Yard. (U.S. Navy photo by Juan Liriano)

WASHINGTON—Sarkisn Tatigian, who began his Navy career at the age of 19 during the Second World War, passed away earlier this week, leaving behind a nearly 78-year legacy of service to the Department of Defense, reported the Naval Sea Systems Command Office of Corporate Communications on Tuesday.

At the time of his death, Tatigian, the longest serving civil servant in the history of the DoD, was serving as Naval Sea Systems Command’s (NAVSEA) Small Business Advocate.

“Mr. Tatigian truly lived a life dedicated to advocacy and the service of others,” said NAVSEA Executive Director, James Smerchansky. “His decades of work oversaw the expansion of the small business industrial base and more than $100 billion in contracts awarded to diverse, small businesses. As we bid fair winds and following seas to Mr. Tatigian, NAVSEA will greatly miss his presence but we will never forget the positive impact he made on this command and the entire U.S. Navy.”

Tatigian’s civilian career with the Navy began in July 1942 as a junior radio inspector at the naval aircraft factory in the Philadelphia Navy Yard and the Navy Office of Inspector of Naval Aircraft in Linden, New Jersey. He left his position as an inspector in March 1943 and entered the uniformed Navy as an active-duty Sailor. In June 1944, he started working as an aviation electronics technician’s mate in the development of the Navy’s first guided anti-ship munition, the ASM-N-2 “BAT” glide bomb, which later became an operational weapon used by the fleet at the end of World War II.

Sarkis Tatigian celebrated 75 years of service in September 2017 with Vice Admiral Thomas Moore, commander, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). (Photo by Juan Liriano)

In 1946, he left active duty and returned to the Navy department and civil service with the Bureau of Ordnance in Washington, working on the Navy’s first generation of guided-missile systems. From there, he moved on to his life’s passion, helping small businesses, as a small business analyst for the bureau. While in the position, Tatigian developed a small business mobile exhibit that traveled coast-to-coast, visiting all state capitals and cities with populations exceeding 400,000. For his organizational efforts on the exhibit, Tatigian received Congressional recognition.

In June 1979, Tatigian was appointed NAVSEA’s associate director of the Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization Office. The office was eventually renamed the Small Business Program Office, where he continued to serve as an advocate for small business.
In 2012, it was announced during a ceremony honoring Tatigian’s 70 years of service that the Navy’s Office of Business Opportunities Director’s Award would be renamed the Sarkis Tatigian Small Business Award. The award recognizes outstanding performance by a field activity in creating an organizational climate resulting in the advancement of small business opportunity through exceptionally-managed small business programs and challenging initiatives and who has made significant contributions to the command and the DON small business program. Because of his contributions, Tatigian even won the award that bears his name.

In 2017, NAVSEA celebrated Tatigian’s 75th anniversary of civil service. A unique service pin was specially made to mark the occasion as one celebrating that many years of service had never been given before to an employee.

Tatigian, explained upon his 75th anniversary, why he was driven to continue to come to work each day at NAVSEA.

“I was retirement eligible in October 1973,” said Tatigian. “But when you don’t have something to wake up for, that’s when you start to decline. And, if you love what you do and derive a sense of personal worthiness, it’s not really work.”

Armenia’s Constitutional Reform Delayed Indefinitely

Ani Basmajian
Institute for War & Peace Reporting, UK
Flagship vote put on back burner while country deals with Covid-19.
By Manya Israyelyan

Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan’s signature policy of judicial reform has been thrown into jeopardy by the coronavirus pandemic, with a promised referendum on constitutional reforms postponed indefinitely.

The state of emergency imposed on March 17 means the scheduled April 5 vote, which envisages the dismissal of seven of the nine acting members of the constitutional court, can no longer go ahead.

(See Armenia: Can Government Popularity Weather Covid-19?)

The range of nation-wide limitations imposed in response to the pandemic, which include restrictions on freedom of movement, the closing of restaurants and cafes as well as all educational institutions, will last at least until April 16. However, it is likely that this period will be extended.

The official referendum campaign began on February 17 and was intended to last until April 3, with Pashinyan himself having intended to take leave from his prime ministerial duties to focus on the vote.

“In a state of emergency, a referendum cannot be held in the country. It must take place after the state of emergency, no earlier than 50 days and no later than 65 days,” he told a special meeting of the national assembly on March 16.

The postponement was a particularly severe blow as Pashinyan’s administration has repeatedly advocated the necessity of restoring judicial independence as an essential conclusion to 2018’s so-called Velvet Revolution.

The amendment envisages the removal of judges, most notably Hrayr Tovmasyan, who are widely perceived as too close to the former government.

Tovmasyan is seen as one of the last prominent representations of the Republican Party, and widely credited with tailoring the December 2015 constitutional amendments to fit former premier Serzh Sargsyan’s ambitions for life-long governance. This also resulted in Tovmasyan’s appointment as head of the constitutional body until he reached pension age in 2035. 

Nina Karapetyants, chairwoman of the Helsinki Association for Human Rights, told IWPR that the constitutional court represented the previous authorities rather than the country.

 “This is a fact that was proven each time the court made a decision regarding post-election cases,” Karapetyants said.  

Political commentator Hakob Badalyan said that while the proposed changes to the court would only tackle the issue of its composition rather than its independence, the move would still increase public trust in the judicial process.

“Having an independent judiciary is a matter of a rather long process, it is not realistic to expect an independent judiciary within a few months,” he continued.

“Independence requires institutional solutions for which we have a long way to go. But in this case we will at least have a Constitutional Court that truly enjoys public trust because public attitude towards that court is mediated by the attitude towards the government.”

Delaying their flagship policy will come as a blow to the ruling party, especially as some have criticised the government as having been too slow to respond to the Covid-19 crisis.

But political scientist Armen Baghdasaryan told IWPR that this would not permanently frustrate the plans for judicial reform.

“The measures taken over the virus, though belated, inspire hope that it will be overcome in the emergency period,” he said. “Whether the referendum will or will not take place in the summer, I can’t say. But it is also possible that it will be delayed for a longer period to carry out overall constitutional amendments instead of merely changing judges.”

Meanwhile, Nagorno-Karabakh is not going to change the date of its parliamentary and presidential elections, scheduled for March 31. The central election committee introduced a number of preventive measures to try and hamper the spread of infection when people turn out to vote.

Elyse Semerdjian reviews The Missing Pages

Ani Basmajian

Heghnar Zeitlian Watenpaugh, The Missing Pages: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript, from Genocide to Justice. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2019. 402 pp.

Review by Elyse Semerdjian

An illuminated manuscript containing the Gospels rests in an archive in Yerevan, Armenia, while eight missing pages of canon tables––concordance lists of related biblical passages––are housed at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The Missing Pages is Heghnar Watenpaugh’s biography of a “survivor object,” the Zeytun Gospels. The dismembered manuscript is a potent metaphor for the Armenian community scattered across the earth like looted pages during a genocide campaign that began in 1915. The missing canon tables were the subject of a 2010 lawsuit initiated by the Armenian Western Prelacy against the Getty Museum in Los Angeles over ownership of stolen Armenian heritage.

Watenpaugh’s study will be appreciated by audiences hungry for excellent story telling as she unfurls the mystery of how the manuscript was cloven in two and how its legacy spread across seven countries concluding with a lawsuit that left eight missing pages in Los Angeles. The chapters begin with creator Toros Roslin painting the sacred text within Hromkla fortress in 1256, a pristine rural enclave in Zeytun. The manuscript was moved to Marash before it was uprooted from Anatolia and brought to America. Who stole the missing pages will not be revealed in this review, but readers are sure to be surprised. While the mother manuscript traveled to the Matenadaran Repository of Manuscripts in Yerevan, the canon tables were held for seventy years by the Atamian family until sold to the Getty in 1994.

The author’s personal relationship to the Getty controversy prompts her to embrace a role as public intellectual and a more personal narrative style in this work––a refreshing break from the conventions of history writing that is sure to invite a broader audience to the conversation. With other Armenian pilgrims, Watepaugh visits the Getty Center in Los Angeles to interact with the sacred object within the church-like museum, a “gleaming white citadel of art” that mirrors in awe-inspiring wonder the “God-protected castle” of Hromkla where Toros Roslin originally ornamented the pages in luxurious jeweled colors. Watenpaugh’s talents as a scholar of material culture allows her to skillfully read the traces of exile on the manuscript’s surface. A large crease in the looted pages prompts her “to imagine how, at some point, unknown hands removed the Canon Tables from the mother manuscript, how they folded it, perhaps tucked it in a pocket or in the folds of a fabric belt like the ones men worse in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire” (p. 22).  

It is important to emphasize that The Missing Pages is a work that only Watenpaugh could write with her mastery of Arabic, Turkish, and especially Western Armenian, a language listed by UNESCO as endangered because of the destruction of Armenian cultural centers during the genocide. Through such access, pregenocide Zeytun and Marash are brought to life with her access to the prolific writing culture that Armenians had established in Anatolia and brought with them to diaspora. From these sources, she captures a moving image of Armenian Archbishop of Aleppo Ardavast Surmeian “choking” when he observed a vender in Erzurum wrapping olives in a page of manuscript containing medieval Armenian script (p. 181). Armenian books, like the Armenian people, were subjected to both casual and ritualized violence as they were stabbed, defaced, and despoiled. She estimates that these uninventoried and missing Armenian manuscripts could number as high as 30,000, explaining why the survival of the Zeytun Gospels is so meaningful to the Armenian community.

Watenpaugh offers vivid ethnographic writing of her experiences as an Armenian inside postgenocide Turkey. In those moments, she interacts with current residents of Zeytun––the descendants of those who perpetrated the killings and deportations that left the region without a single Armenian. She describes both the warm and awkward exchanges with those living among Armenian ruins they don’t recognize due to a state policy that expunged public memory of the Armenians who once lived there a century ago. She boards a boat on the flooded plain that now surrounds the Hromkla citadel, intentional flooding that continues the process of erasure that began with the 1915 genocide. The author analyzes defaced inscriptions on barely accessible architectural ruins. The destruction of heritage was a criterion of genocide that Raphael Lemkin considered but did not finally include in the final draft of the UN Convention for the Prevention of Genocide (1948). The Missing Pages effectively resuscitates his project making the case for heritage as a human right and the destruction of art as an act of cultural genocide.

The Taliban’s destruction of the Bamyan Buddha statues, ISIS’s destruction of Palmyra, Syria, and recent threats by the US president to target Iranian heritage with military strikes are stark examples of how heritage is endangered by both political extremism and war. The questions raised by The Missing Pages are ones that will continue to haunt humanity as war threatens to erase the heritage that importantly once supported the shared public memory of communities, the kind of memory erased in places like Zeytun. By raising these important questions, Watenpaugh is certain to attract the attention of scholars outside her field promising to usher forth a conversation about the relationship between cultural heritage and human rights.

Chicago Journals

Armenia’s PM’s family again undergoes coronavirus test after contacting with Meghri resident

Ani Basmajian
Aysor, Armenia

Armenia’s PM says their whole family underwent coronavirus test and the results will be available later.

Speaking in live video on Facebook, Pashinyan stressed that the test was made after their contacts with Meghri resident in Vayk.

“We have passed the test again with the whole family after having contacted with a Meghri resident in Vayk. We have entered a bistro and it appeared that we have passed by the mentioned citizen, contacted with him,” the PM said, adding that they will report after the results of the tests are available.

“If the test is positive we will stay isolated in Sevan, if negative, I will return Yerevan early in the morning and work from there,” Pashinyan said.

Twenty-eight confirmed coronavirus cases have been registered in Armenia so far.

EU-Armenia cooperation discussed in the context of EU

Ani Basmajian

"Green Deal"

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YEREVAN, MARCH 13, ARMENPRESS. The sixth EU-Armenia Subcommittee on energy, transport, environment, climate action and civil protection took place on 11-12 March and discussed EU-Armenia cooperation in the context of the EU "Green Deal", which aims for Europe to become a carbon-neutral continent by 2050, the EU Delegation to Armenia told Armenpress.

The Subcommittee also took stock of Armenia's progress in approximation to EU standards under the EU-Armenia Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement in the fields covered by the Subcommittee, including areas where further work is scheduled with EU support in the form of technical and financial assistance. Because of the current coronavirus pandemic, the meeting took place by video link between Yerevan and Brussels.

The Armenian delegation was led by Mr Hakob Vardanyan, Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure; the EU side was led by Mr Richard Tibbels, Head of Division of the European External Action Service. For the first time, the subcommittee meeting was followed by more in-depth EU-Armenia expert consultations as agreed by the EU-Armenia Partnership Committee in November 2019. These first consultations concerned the fields of air and water quality.

Asbarez: COVID-19: Armenia Fund, Chevy Chase Surgery Center, ARS Send Medical Supplies to Armenia

Ani Basmajian

CCSC Administrator Raffi Sarkissian and surgery technician Vardan Lalayan reviewing boxes of supplies bound for Armenia in response to the COVID-19 containment efforts

LOS ANGELES—Working closely with the Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs of Armenia and the Ministry of Health, Armenia Fund USA, Chevy Chase Surgery Center, and the Armenian Relief Society joined forces and quickly assembled relevant medical supplies and resources to help boost Armenia’s response to the global pandemic of COVID-19, also known as the novel coronavirus.

Thanks to the valuable input and advice of clinicians and experts assembled by the Office of the High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs, and given the entities’ prior partnerships and working relationship Armenia Fund USA and Chevy Chase Surgery Center, were able to quickly acquire these supplies, despite facing supply-chain challenges and availability in the United States. The items were all palletized and loaded onto an aircraft in Los Angeles and immediately sent to Armenia and Artsakh.

Armenia Fund USA’s partner in Yerevan, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund, also played a critical role in ensuring the proper arrival, clearance, and dissemination of the supplies. Using its well-experienced, on-the-ground support, the Fund worked closely with government bodies in ensuring the supplies reach their intended destinations and areas of immediate need.

Boxes of critical supplies necessary for screening and isolation being loaded on its way to LAX air cargo for a speedy arrival to Armenia

Principals of the Chevy Chase Surgery Center, Dr. Avedis Tavitian and Drs. Ara and Armineh Tavitian were quick to support the efforts, allocating time, staff, and resources for the quick deployments of supplies to Armenia. The Ani & Narod Memorial Foundation financially participated in the effort through their generous support.

“I would like to extend my heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to our partners and friends at the Chevy Chase Surgery Center and the ARS, who quickly responded to our call for assistance and promptly put together much needed supplies to help the Republic of Armenia’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak. Staying true to its mission, Armenia Fund USA continues to bring Armenian communities across the United States together with one mission and that is to help serve Armenia and Artsakh,” stated Armenia Fund USA President, Maria Mehranian.

Raffi Sarkissian, Administrator of the Chevy Chase Surgery Center played an important role in obtaining the supplies from key distributors and suppliers in the United States. “Armenia Fund USA, Chevy Chase Surgery Center, and the ARS acted as a rapid reaction force in helping Armenia and Artsakh with much needed supplies, in light of the uncertainties with this global crisis. Whether in Los Angeles or in any part of the globe, we stand ready to help Armenia and Artsakh. I would like to personally commend the quick, professional response of the Ministry of Health of Armenia,” stated Raffi Sarkissian.

The one ton of supplies included items sourced per U.S. CDC and WHO guidelines. The items will help prevent the spread of COVID-19 by providing Armenian healthcare clinicians the necessary screening tools and items whether in Armenia or in borderline areas.

Newspaper: Who is most interested party in Armenia judicial changes?

Ani Basmajian
News.am, Armenia
March 4 2020

10:14, 04.03.2020
                  

YEREVAN. – Past daily of Armenia writes: The package of bills on judicial amendments has been put for debates in the NA [National Assembly]. It should be noted that it is quite extensive and concerns steps to eliminate corruption in the judicial system. With these drafts, changes are expected in the committees following the discipline and integrity of the [country’s] judges.

The major innovation is that, in addition to court representatives, reputable lawyer scholars appointed by the public sector will also be on those committees.

According to Past newspaper’s information, by achieving prior consent of the authorities on this matter, the Soros office representatives, representatives of the NGOs that received various grants from that office, including those persons who once represented this sector but are now within the current power, have worked in the most interested way.

It was they who invited from abroad transitional justice and vetting specialists as experts so that the latter can present in detail to the Armenian partners the nuances of making changes.

Understanding the Background of Press Freedoms in Armenia

Ani Basmajian
MediaFile
March 6 2020
Mar 06, 2020 by Kennedy McGilvery

Corruption within the Armenian government resulted in a revolution that shifted the tides in the relationship between the media and the government. Armenia has been added to the list of countries around the world enforcing censorship behind “hate speech” and “fake news” laws.

Armenia is no stranger to conflicts between the government and the media. In 2018, investigative journalists uncovered mounting evidence of corruption in the government. The findings sparked the Velvet Revolution in April of 2018. The revolution was Armenia’s first revolt against the government since its separation from the Soviet Union. It was a seemingly peaceful transition to democracy within the country.

A key moment in the Velvet Revolution started with Armenian parliament member Nikol Pashinyan and his “My Step” protest march on March 31. His movement would begin in Armenia’s second-largest city of Gyumri and was only composed of Pashinyan and a dozen people, mainly journalists. As they journeyed to the capital, Yerevan, thousands joined the movement in the two-week march.

The revolution gained widespread coverage within the country, with TV companies covering breaking news opposing the political agenda influenced by supporters of the corrupt government. After the Velvet Revolution, corruption in the media became a popular issue for government officials to address.

The revolution was influenced by the mass protests following Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s announcement of his candidacy for prime minister. Anti-government protests wreaked havoc across the country in the wake of Sargsyan coming to power in 2008. Sargsyan’s presidency was the root of the country’s years of corruption. He was indicted for embezzling one million dollars of state money.

If it succeeds, the Velvet Revolution would be the first successful movement since the country’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Three weeks after the protest, Pashinyan was elected as a temporary head of the government.

Starting in early October, the office of the news website Hayeli.am, was attacked for “Anti-Armenian” headlines attacking Pashinyan, now Prime Minister. The coverage was seen across the political spectrum was as an inappropriate attack against the press.

Since 2018, Pashinyan and his allies were successful in taking control of a majority of the corrupt government. Although some outlets continue to be loyal to the previous administration, many are fiercely loyal to Pashinyan and his allies.

Even with the gradual gains of press freedoms since 2018, the growing conflict between the government and media has grown. From 2018 to 2019, Armenia moved up 19 places on the World Press Index by Reporters Without Borders, ranking them 61 in 2019.

The Committee to Protect Freedom of _expression_ (CPFE) recorded 33 additional lawsuits against journalists in their third-quarter report of the situation in Armenia, to the 83 reported lawsuits in the first quarter. CPFE blamed the rise in suits to the fact that media outlets continue to be infected with hate speech, fake news, biased comments, and manipulation.

“In the post-revolutionary period, when the polarization and division of the media into political and financial camps became more acute, many media outlets turned into propaganda machines primarily serving the interests of their political sponsors and ignoring the public interest,” CPFE reported.

Armenia is dealing with “fake news” from well-known platforms hiding behind the right to free speech. Before Pashinyan came into power last year, many of the media outlets worked under former president Sargsyan’s son-in-law, Mikayel Minasyan. After the revolution, a multitude of Minasyan’s media outlets were sold to buyers still connected with the former authorities.

Out of all the outlets sold by Minasyan, the 5th Channel is the most anti-government. The channel covers a combination of political persecutions against the former authorities by the new government and the weakness of the new powers.

“5th Channel is a part of Kocharyan’s political campaign, it’s a propaganda tool,” said Vardanyan of the Media Initiative Center.

On October 29, the Armenian Institute of International Security Affairs hosted an event but declined to allow a handful of media outlets.

CPFE and the Media Initiative Center faltered at this discussion, saying, “although there is a reality in the Armenian media field where the media serve different political interests, non-governmental organizations should not be discriminated against, guided by their sympathy or hatred.”

It is unlikely that 5th Channel’s license will be renewed due to Armen Tavadyan’s arrest on suspicion of false testimony, and either bribery or coercion to give a false testimony. Tavadyan had been arrested because of his connections to the 2008 criminal case involving Varuzhan Mkrtchyan, a supporter of former president Kocharyan.

Pashinyan faces an uphill battle with 90 percent of media in Armenia being controlled by supporters of the old government. He is still fighting against corruption in the media. Through all the roles he’s had across Armenia, Pashinyan and his family still a low circulated newspaper, Armtimes.

http://www.mediafiledc.com/understanding-the-background-of-press-freedoms-in-armenia/

Armenian troops thwart Azerbaijan’s attempted subversive attack

Ani Basmajian
Panorama, Armenia
March 6 2020
Politics 11:25 06/03/2020 Armenia

Azerbaijani military attempted a subversive attack targeting a north-eastern Armenian military position, the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The attack was recorded at around 5:30am local time.

The Armenian frontline troops foiled the attack, as a result of which the Azerbaijani group was pushed back suffering losses and leaving behind ammunition and a mine detector.

The Armenian side has not suffered any losses, the ministry said, adding only one serviceman has been slightly injured in the operations. The circumstances of the incident are being clarified.

"An analysis of the actions reveals that the adversary has carried out serious preparatory work for the given cross border infiltration, which was carried out by respectively trained personnel,” the ministry said, adding the Azerbaijani subversive group used German-made mine detector. 

Speaker of Georgian Parliament highlights the role of Armenian community in the country’s development

Ani Basmajian
Panorama, Armenia
March 3 2020

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan today met with Georgian Parliament Speaker Archil Talakvadze on the sidelines of his official visit to Georgia, the press service at the government reported.

Appreciating the ongoing cooperation between the Armenian and Georgian governments and parliaments, Mr. Talakvadze emphasized that Prime Minister Pashinyan’s visit will help strengthen and expand ties between the two nations. He highly valued the partnership between the Armenian and Georgian parliamentarians on both bilateral and international platforms.

The Speaker of Georgian Parliament highlighted the role played by Georgian Armenians in his country’s development. In this connection, he noted that the Armenian community serves as a bridge for boosting interstate cooperation.

In turn, Nikol Pashinyan said the inter-parliamentary dialogue is of special importance in interstate relations. He appreciated the ongoing close interaction between lawmakers as they can go a long way toward strengthening the bonds of friendship between Armenia and Georgia.

Pashinyan and Talakvadze agreed that intensive dialogue can open up new opportunities for joint programs and projects. In conclusion, Pashinyan signed the Georgian Parliament’s Honorary Guest Book, the source said.