Author: Ara Felekian

1 -        An Incredible Armenian Who Retrieved
            Armenian Orphans from the Syrian Desert
            By Harut Sassounian
            Publisher, The California Courier
            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2-         COVID-19: Recoveries surpass new cases in Armenia for first
time since April
3 -        Dr. Alina Dorian to Advance CA Contact Tracing
            to Prevent Spread of COVID-19
4-         Roslin Press Presents Armenian Adaptation of Animated
Series, Treasure Island
5-         2020 Arpa International Film Festival Moves Online

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1 -        An Incredible Armenian Who Retrieved
            Armenian Orphans from the Syrian Desert
            By Harut Sassounian
            Publisher, The California Courier
            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

Parnag Shishigyan is a heroic Zeytountsi who retrieved hundreds of
Armenian orphans from Arab families in the Syrian desert after the
Armenian Genocide. His name is not known to most Armenians. Therefore
it is worthwhile to focus attention on his life and his good deeds. He
is buried in the little town of Hovdashad, a few miles outside of
Yerevan.

Last month, Zarmik Sargsyan from Yerevan posted on her Facebook page a
very moving tribute to Parnag Shishigyan after visiting his grave. The
only reference to his unique accomplishment is a booklet published 30
years ago by Hagop Jghlyan whose family he had rescued. The book was
aptly titled, “A Life Left in the Shadows.” Sargsyan attempted to take
Shishigyan’s life out of the shadows and present him to the public at
large.

From April 10 to May 18, 1915, the heroic town of Zeytoun in Cilicia
was depopulated. The men were herded into the infamous Ottoman Turkish
“Labor Battalions.” On the road to Deir Zor, Syria, 14-year-old
Parnag, ignoring the snakes and scorpions around him, spent days
cuddling the corpse of his mother who was killed by the sword of a
Turkish soldier. He was rescued by a Bedouin Arab from the Shammar
tribe, who, after digging a grave in the sand for Parnag’s mother with
his dagger, placed the young boy on his horse and took him to his
home.

Young Parnag who already knew Armenian, German and Turkish, soon also
learned Arabic. Besides herding sheep and camels, Parnag, renamed
Ahmet El Jezza, taught the tribesmen how to write in Arabic. He became
very popular in the region because of his diligence, humility, and
serious demeanor.

Soon, in the course of herding sheep, Parnag came across in the desert
many Armenian children adopted by local Arabs. He reminded them of
their Armenian heritage and began to write down their names and places
of residence in a notebook.

In 1924, 23-year-old “Ahmet”, as a trusted and literate young man, was
asked to deliver a herd of sheep bought by wealthy Arabs from Aleppo.
Once in Aleppo, he was surprised to see Armenian signs on store fronts
and people speaking in Armenian. He was offered a job and a place to
stay by local Armenians, but he turned down the offers, saying he had
a family in the desert and could not abandon them. He then showed to
an Armenian shoemaker his notebook listing the names and places of
Armenian children living in the desert with Arab families. He had
promised himself to gather these Armenian children, help them marry
each other and find their relatives, if still alive. It was a very
difficult task. Most of the children, having lived with Arab families
for several years, did not remember their heritage and did not know
that there were other Armenians still in existence. But Parnag
persisted despite the obstacles.

The shoemaker Panos, President of the Rescue Committee of Armenian
orphans from Arab and Kurdish tribes, was stunned. During the last few
months, the Committee had barely rescued a couple of children, and now
Panos was seeing an entire notebook full of Armenian names.

After returning to his tribe, Parnag kept sending list after list of
Armenian children to Aleppo. The Rescue Committee would then go to the
desert, pay off the tribesmen and take the Armenian children to Aleppo
or Beirut.

Eventually, the Syrian government allocated two villages in the desert
to Armenians. Parnag got married to an Armenian woman by the name of
Wadha who later changed her name to Siranoush. Respecting their
adoptive Arab parents, they agreed to have the marriage ceremony
performed by a Muslim Sheikh. The couple planned to have an Armenian
wedding later on. Parnag’s four Arab “brothers” were not happy that he
was leaving them to go and settle in the new Armenian village of Tel
El-Brak. They divided the family belongings into five. Parnag took
with him 100 sheep, five camels, a horse, a rifle, and household
items.

Parnag brought the hundreds of Arabized Armenians to his village, gave
them Armenian names and arranged their marriages. He organized the
young men of the village to collect the bones of Armenian martyrs from
Deir Zor, Raqqa, around the Euphrates and Khabour rivers and the
tragic cave of Sheddedeh. Parnag held a memorial ceremony for the
souls of the deceased.

The two Armenian villages in the desert soon prospered. They formed a
sports organization and a music band. In 1947, when Parnag became
aware of the mass migration back to Soviet Armenia he decided to
return to the homeland! He left all his possessions behind except for
one thing, his Arabian horse, which he donated to a horse ranch after
arriving in Armenia.

Parnag’s family settled in Hovdashad, a village near Echmiadzin where
he worked as a farmer. His wife, Siranoush, had five more children in
Armenia. Even though Parnag had retrieved hundreds of Armenian
children, he always thought of the hundreds of other children who were
not, including his wife, Siranoush’s sister.

In the Hovdashad cemetery, there is a statue of Parnag in Arabic
attire. The house that Parnag built in 1956 in that village is now
like a museum, where his clothes and his photos are displayed.
Facebook writer Zarmik Sargsyan recalls that Parnag’s great-grandson
Hagop was married in Los Angeles on April 17, 1997, in the presence of
his seven siblings. It is ironic that the descendants of the man, who
had sacrificed so much to rescue Armenians and moved to the homeland,
now live far away from Armenia, in Los Angeles!

Armenians both in Armenia and the Diaspora should visit the village of
Hovdashad and Parnag’s grave to pay tribute to the man who retrieved
hundreds of Armenian orphans and returned them to their heritage.

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2-         COVID-19: Recoveries surpass new cases in Armenia for first
time since April

            By Raffi Elliott

YEREVAN (The Armenian Weekly)—As of May 25, Armenia has registered a
total of 7,113 cases of COVID-19, 3,842 of which are still active. Of
those, less than a thousand have shown any symptoms. Officials say
3,145 patients have already recovered, while 87 have died.

The Armenian Ministry of Health announced on May 20 that it had
registered 230 new cases of COVID-19 during the previous 24-hour
period. At the same time, 255 recovered patients have been discharged
from hospital.

This announcement marked the first time that the number of daily new
recoveries surpassed the number of newly confirmed cases since
mid-April, when the first rounds of lockdown easing came into force.

Following a three-week period of nearly flat new infection rates
between April 12 and April 25, the numbers steadily began to increase
again in parallel with each new round of lifting restrictions on
freedom of movement and business activity. Most restrictions were
rolled back between May 4 and May 14 with the condition that strict
hygiene and safety protocols be implemented.

On May 14, the Armenian parliament voted to remove remaining
restrictions on public transit and indoor commercial activity, but
also instituted a mandatory mask policy in public with fines of up to
100,000 AMD ($200) for non-compliance. At the same time, the
government also extended the State of Emergency by another month in
order to clear any constitutional constraints on Public Health
Authorities’ ability to quickly react to potential future outbreaks.

The government’s decision to scale down these regulations while the
pandemic is still uncontained has been met with criticism by some.
However, the Prime Minister responded that projections anticipate new
cases continuing into next year or until a vaccine becomes widely
available. “It’s not realistic to keep the entire country locked up
for another year,” he explained in early May.

Health Minister Arsen Torosyan, who earlier had warned that first
responders might soon have to ask patients without symptoms to
self-isolate as emergency wards reach capacity, has already conducted
the first online courses with medical personnel around the country on
how to monitor such asymptomatic patients. Over the course of the
pandemic, the healthcare system has managed to free up resources to
care for up to four thousand patients – up from 350 in February.
However, the steady rise in cases has led the Ministry to adjust its
strategy to focus care on those showing symptoms.

Indeed, new case rates hit a record high of 351 in a single day on May
18, before subsiding again in the following days. The increase in new
registered cases might be attributed in part to vast improvements in
testing and contact-tracing operations. At least 44,000 tests have
been conducted since the outbreak began.

Notably, despite the exponential increase in testing, the percentage
of positive returns has continued to hover at around 10 percent,
suggesting that the total rate of infections has remained constant.
Daily recovery rates have also begun to rise sharply over the last
week.

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3 -        Dr. Alina Dorian to Advance CA Contact Tracing

            to Prevent Spread of COVID-19

Rose and Alex Pilibos Principal Dr. Alina Dorian is leading a team at
UCLA to advance contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic as part
of a partnership launched by Gov. Gavin Newsom that includes UCSF. The
team at UCLA is training thousands of individuals across the state in
public health techniques and strategies, including contact tracing,
case investigation, and administration, in order to mitigate the
spread of COVID-19.

The training program — co-led by the California Department of Public
Health (CADPH); UC San Francisco (UCSF); and UCLA — represents the
next stage in California’s state-wide response to the COVID-19
epidemic: helping prepare residents for an emergence from
shelter-in-place.

The comprehensive pandemic response training program is a campus-wide
effort at UCLA, involving faculty and staff from the UCLA Fielding
School of Public Health and UCLA Extension. The team’s leaders include
Brookmeyer and Bullard; Alina Dorian, UCLA FSPH associate dean for
public health practice, and for equity, diversity, and inclusion; and
Michael Prelip, professor and chair of the Department of Community
Health Sciences at UCLA FSPH.

Dorian, whose expertise includes disaster relief, health education,
and health systems management, said the skills necessary for contact
tracing are well-known and that the techniques have been used
successfully in public health campaigns for decades.

“We regularly use contact tracing to contain communicable diseases,
and we scale it up during outbreaks. So it’s a public health measure
that is tried and true,” said Dorian, who has led emergency response
teams in Kosovo, Haiti, and Peru.

“The threat of COVID-19 remains high. If we want to safely begin
reopening our society, we need to have certain public health measures
in place, including a significant increase in our ability to trace new
infections,” said Ron Brookmeyer, dean of the UCLA Fielding School of
Public Health. “This large scale training program with our colleagues
here at UCLA, and at UCSF and the CADPH, will allow us to begin that
effort to expand and strengthen our public health workforce.”

At UCLA, the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health (UCLA FSPH) and
UCLA Extension are managing the training program, known statewide as
the “COVID-19 Virtual Training Academy” and designed to standup case
investigation and COVID-19 contact tracing training across multiple
counties in California. Statewide, there is an anticipated need to
train from 10,000 to 20,000 new contact tracers in order to
effectively relax California’s stay-at-home orders.

“Public health and well-being is top of mind for all of us, and
assisting with the training and creation of an emerging workforce is
something that UCLA Extension and the Fielding School are well
positioned to undertake,” said Eric A. Bullard, dean of continuing
education and UCLA Extension. The initial training cohort includes
approximately 550 current public employees with applicable skills,
including language abilities and up-to-date background checks. That
will increase to about 1,000 per week as the program ramps up,
organizers said.

Governor Gavin Newsom has laid out six key metrics for modifying the
stay-at-home order in California. For the first, the state must have
“the ability to monitor and protect our communities through testing,
contact tracing, isolation, and supporting those who are positive or
exposed.” Newsom said the following crucial components must be in
place: a workforce sufficient to rapidly identify every case and
contact in the state; a high-quality training program with capacity to
quickly stand up a large, new competent workforce; and a robust,
statewide data management and communications platform to streamline
and support COVID-19 contact tracing work done by local health
jurisdictions and to enable monitoring across the state to swiftly
signal need for any changes in public health response. Prelip, whose
experience also includes disaster and emergency preparedness, has used
similar training techniques in connection with his work in the U.S.
Both said lessons learned from past emergencies are key elements of
the current program, which they expect will continue throughout 2020
and possibly well into 2021.

“This isn’t going to be one round of training — we are going to need
to train large numbers of people over time and adjust as conditions
and factors change,” Prelip said. “There is a tremendous amount of
work that lies ahead, but this is the responsible path forward.”

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4-         Roslin Press Presents Armenian Adaptation of Animated
Series, Treasure Island

            By Haig Norian

In an initiative the likes of which the Diaspora hasn’t seen in over a
generation, Roslin Press announced the first-ever Armenian production
of Osamu Dezaki’s anime rendition of the classic swashbuckling
adventure, Treasure Island. To capture the spirit of the 21st century
Diaspora and Armenia, the 26-episode series features a mix of
characters speaking Eastern and Western Armenian. Thanks to the
assistance of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, young Armenians from
across the globe can now sail the seven seas with Jim Hawkins in his
search for buried treasure.

Especially during the pandemic with all of us spending an
unprecedented amount of time at home, finding high-quality Armenian
entertainment for children has never been more important.

It was a dark and stormy night… Jim and his mother were tidying up the
Admiral Benbow’ Inn of Black Hill, a remote part of the English
countryside. Just as they were about ready to lock up, a mysterious
old sea captain arrives at their door. This wayward stranger named
Billy Bones warns of a certain one-legged man – a vicious, brutal
pirate who must be avoided at all costs.  Fearing that he may not be
around much longer, Billy entrusts Jim with some mysterious papers-one
of them being a map – the map to Treasure Island. And thus begins an
epic saga of high seas adventure, treacherous mutiny, and one boy’s
courage, faith, and good will.

Treasure Island comes at a critical juncture in the Diaspora. There is
no denying that the Diasporan communities of the world are struggling
when it comes to language maintenance. In our opinion, what is needed
to keep the youth engaged with the Armenian language is high quality
entertainment with a strong literary backbone. Children must be
entertained but must also be exposed to complex thoughts, emotions and
themes. The new Armenian production of Treasure Island has all these
combined with a fantastic score and beautiful animation.

Special attention was given to the translation of Treasure Island.
Both Eastern and Western Armenian are shown organically interacting
for the first time in a children’s animated series.  From LA to Paris,
the old mono-dialect Diaspora is no more. Communities are more diverse
than they have ever been, and we set out to celebrate this fact in
Treasure Island. Characters are depicted with their unique accents and
linguistic stylings, encouraging our youth to embrace the linguistic
diversity of the Armenian language.

Each and every single member of the Roslin and TechnoLinguistics team
that has contributed to bringing Treasure Island to life has left an
indelible mark of love.

A full list of the Treasure Island family can be seen below during the
credits montage:  Pay special attention to the beautifully
orchestrated theme song, brought to you with love from Yerevan.

Treasure Island is available now on VLUME, a new media platform
custom-built for the Armenian speaking communities of the world. VLUME
is already host to hundreds of eBooks, 1000’s of hours of audiobooks,
and now with the introduction of Treasure Island – video content.
Whether you are in Buenos Aires or Nicosia, New Jersey or Paris,
Glendale or Yerevan – VLUME provides an unprecedented sense of
community, now centered around fantastic literature and the best and
brightest video content that the world has to offer.

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5-         2020 Arpa International Film Festival Moves Online

This year marks the 23rd anniversary of Arpa International Film
Festival, the signature event of the Arpa Foundation for Film, Music
and Art (AFFMA), which was slated for October 24 – 26, 2020.

In consideration of the continuing challenges and uncertainty stemming
from the Covid-19 pandemic, and per the extended federal and state
guidelines, the organizers have decided to stream the festival online,
instead of theatrical screenings due to the social distancing measures
in place.

“While it was our hope to screen the films theatrically, streaming the
films online will reach a greater viewership. We are working very hard
to make this transitional process as smooth for our film audiences as
possible. The gifted independent storytellers rely on the festival’s
platform for exposure. We are already receiving wonderful submissions
of shorts, features, documentaries, animation and music videos to our
festival. We are committed to showcasing all the selected films during
our online festival,” said the organization in a statement.

“It is important to stress that our focus is to support independent
cinema which has inspired and sustained our festival globally. Since
its inception, our festival’s future has always depended on the
selfless acts of our community that continue to be our beacons of
light, pushing forward diversity, innovation, creativity and vision to
preserve our Festival,” said the statement.

“Our warmest gratitude once again to you all. We truly appreciate your
love and support in standing with us during this difficult time.
Stories are more important now than ever. We will transition and
overcome the challenges together, celebrating the diverse array of
films by unique voices that we are extremely excited about screening,”
said the statement.

“Arpa International Film Festival supporters have always stood behind
our festival in helping independent filmmakers find their true purpose
in the cinematic arena. Because of you we have discovered and
connected to filmmakers across the globe assisting them in their
creative process. We are fully aware that there are critically
important issues that need support around the world however we are
also reminded that the voices of our independent filmmakers still be
heard and for that reason we are keeping our doors open and supporting
these struggling artists thru online streaming this year,” said the
statement.

“Things seem inevitable and beyond our control at this time, however
only if you are in a position to continue your support and champion
creative independent cinema, we would be deeply grateful for your
donation from the heart,” said the statement.

Donations may be made online, or via mail by sending checks to AFFMA –
Arpa Foundation for Film, Music & Art, 2919 Maxwell St, Los Angeles,
CA 90027.

AFFMA will inform filmmakers and supporters of new developments
through their website, Film Freeway, Facebook and Instagram.

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California Courier Online provides viewers of the Armenian News News Service
with a few of the articles in this week's issue of The California
Courier.  Letters to the editor are encouraged through our e-mail
address, However, authors are
requested to provide their names, addresses, and/or telephone numbers
to verify identity, if any question arises. California Courier
subscribers are requested not to use this service to change, or modify
mailing addresses. Those changes can be made through our e-mail,
, or by phone, (818) 409-0949.

 1 -        Coronavirus Provided Opportunity
            To Pursue the Armenian Cause Online
            By Harut Sassounian
            Publisher, The California Courier
            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2-         Armenia Loosens Lockdown Even As COVID-19 Cases Increase
3 -        Despite Pandemic, Chicago Armenians Protest Turkish Genocide Denial
4-         Prominent Manhattan E.R. doctor on COVID-19 front lines
commits suicide
5-         Armenian Engineers Instrumental in Creating
            FDA-approved NASA ventilator for COVID-19 treatment

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1 -        Coronavirus Provided Opportunity
            To Pursue the Armenian Cause Online
            By Harut Sassounian
            Publisher, The California Courier
            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

The coronavirus pandemic disrupted the traditional plans of Armenians
around the world to commemorate the 105th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide on April 24. However, very quickly Armenians discovered new
ways to commemorate the Genocide by changing the street protests and
large gatherings to online marches and internet programs. In the
future, when this pandemic is over, Armenians can use some of the new
internet and video methods on April 24 in addition to the public
events.

This year, Armenians in various countries carried out virtual programs
on April 24 instead of the traditional street protests and indoor
commemorative events. Today I will focus on one of these programs, the
HyeID virtual march.

HyeID is a Glendale, California-based non-profit organization that was
formed three years ago to plan the future Diaspora Armenian
Parliament. This year, the HyeID group organized a virtual
commemoration during the week of April 24, starting on April 22.
Within a few days, over 341,000 Armenians and some non-Armenians from
around the world endorsed the following message on the
April24.Hyeid.org website: “We have to stay home this April 24, but we
join the Online March. We demand justice for Turkey’s Genocide of 1.5
million Armenians in 1915.”

Within a few hours of making this website public, it came under
persistent and massive attack from Azerbaijan and Turkey trying to
hack the site. Fortunately, HyeID board member Aram Ter-Martirosyan, a
software engineer, and his team, reacted quickly by blocking the
hacking efforts. Such an organized hacking attack could have only come
from the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey. This is called
“Denial-of-service attacks” which Wikipedia describes as “a
cyber-attack in which the perpetrator seeks to make a machine or
network resource unavailable to its intended users by temporarily or
indefinitely disrupting services of a host connected to the internet.
Denial of service is typically accomplished by flooding the targeted
machine or resource with superfluous requests in an attempt to
overload systems and prevent some or all legitimate requests from
being fulfilled.” By working around the clock for two nights,
Ter-Martirosyan’s staff was able to block the flood of attacks on the
April 24 link.

Another unfortunate disruptive act was caused by Google, which blocked
on Google Play the HyeID app created by Aram Ter-Martirosyan and his
staff. The Turkish and Azeri hackers, having failed in their
disruptive efforts, probably complained to Google to remove the app
that powered the April 24 program. Google’s negative action limited
significantly the number of online march participants.

Google sent the following offensive message to Aram: “We don’t allow
apps that lack reasonable sensitivity towards or capitalize on a
natural disaster, atrocity, conflict, death, or other tragic event.”
Google also blocked the Google account of Aram’s company, ConnectTo
Communications, Inc., disrupting and causing damage to his business.

Aram immediately filed an appeal with Google, advising that the State
of California, where Google is headquartered, and the United States
had recognized the Armenian Genocide. Google has not responded to
Aram’s appeal. I suggest that HyeID or Aram file a lawsuit against
Google to revoke its wrongful decision on the app.

The HyeID group also posted its April 24 link on Facebook, generating
a large number of responses. This virtual march generated over 341,000
participants—which included 310,000 Armenians and 41,000
non-Armenians—from 198 countries and territories. A major achievement
was that Apple Store ranked the April 24 app among the top 10
downloaded apps in the world for iPhones and iPads.

Besides publicizing the Armenian Genocide to 41,000 non-Armenians
around the world, a by-product of this effort was that for the first
time we discovered that there are Armenians in 198 countries and
territories.

The HyeID group was ecstatic that such a large number of Armenians and
non-Armenians participated in the April 24 virtual march. Even though
this figure is far below the approximately 10 million Armenians
worldwide, the HyeID group was surprised to find out that Armenians
were dispersed in close to 200 countries. Here is the number of
participants in some of the countries/territories:

Russia: 121,415 Armenians; 10,677 non-Armenians.

Armenia: 54,065 Armenians; 3,760 non-Armenians.

United States: 50,390 Armenians; 4,071 non-Armenians.

France: 13,476 Armenians; 1,797 non-Armenians.

Georgia: 9,917 Armenians; 1,049 non-Armenians.

Lebanon: 6,016 Armenians; 828 non-Armenians.

Canada: 5,598 Armenians; 373 non-Armenians.

Belgium: 4,565 Armenians; 313 non-Armenians.

Iran: 4,440 Armenians; 441 non-Armenians.

Germany: 3,748 Armenians; 522 non-Armenians.

Argentina: 3,547 Armenians; 966 non-Armenians.

Netherlands: 2,962 Armenians; 230 non-Armenians.

Ukraine: 2,885 Armenians; 416 non-Armenians.

Spain: 2,473 Armenians; 291 non-Armenians.

Greece: 1,747 Armenians; 187 non-Armenians.

United Kingdom: 1,664 Armenians; 266 non-Armenians.

Austria: 1,223 Armenians; 51 non-Armenians.

United Arab Emirates: 1,174 Armenians; 205 non-Armenians.

Australia: 1,012 Armenians; 61 non-Armenians.

Syria: 1,010 Armenians; 83 non-Armenians.

Artsakh: 961 Armenians; 177 non-Armenians.

Cyprus: 872 Armenians; 77 non-Armenians.

Turkey: 795 Armenians; 410 non-Armenians.

Poland: 651 Armenians; 475 non-Armenians.

Switzerland: 611 Armenians; 156 non-Armenians.

Egypt: 425 Armenians; 85 non-Armenians.

Azerbaijan: 201 Armenians; 99 non-Armenians.

Nakhichevan: 100 Armenians; 33 non-Armenians.

Interestingly, there are a handful of Armenian participants in such
unexpected places as: Mongolia, Northern Mariana Islands, Wake Island,
Indonesia, Wallis and Futuna, American Samoa, French Polynesia, New
Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, Antarctica, Libya, Algeria, Mali,
Madagascar, Mauritius, Chad, Tanzania, Congo, Namibia, Zimbabwe,
Kenya, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa, Central African
Republic, Maldives, Iceland, and Greenland.

To find out the results of the online march in your own country and
city, please go to the interactive report: www.HyeID.org. You can also
learn the number of participants near you by selecting the distance
from your area. As the saying goes, “amen degh Hye ga” [Armenians are
everywhere].

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2-         Armenia Loosens Lockdown Even As COVID-19 Cases Increase

            By Raffi Elliott

YEREVAN—Most businesses across Armenia have been allowed to reopen on
Monday as the country relaxes COVID-19 related lockdown measures even
further. According to Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan, who heads
the anti-pandemic task force, large malls and shopping venues where
people congregate in numbers will remain closed for the time being, as
well as bars, nightclubs and some restaurants that do not offer
outdoor seating. Schools and cultural sites will not reopen for the
moment as well. Public transport, both within Yerevan and between
cities, have not been given the go-ahead to resume operations either.

Avinyan further explained on Sunday that all businesses are required
to operate under strict health and safety guidelines formulated by the
Health Ministry, mandating face masks on employees, limiting the
number of patrons inside stores or restaurants and regularly
disinfecting various surfaces.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who also appeared in Sunday’s Facebook
Live broadcast along with Avinyan and Health Minister Arsen Torosyan,
was careful not to call this “a victory just yet, but rather a new
phase in the struggle.” He clarified that the decision was based on
re-examining data from around the world and concluding that the virus
could not be completely stamped out until a vaccine becomes widely
available.

The pharmaceutical research company Moderna, co-founded by
Armenian-American entrepreneur Noubar Afeyan, announced a 10-year
manufacturing agreement with the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Lonza that
could result in the production of one billion doses per year. Moderna
is one of several research laboratories which have made critical
progress in the race to develop a vaccine for the COVID-19 pandemic
over the past week.

Public health experts in Armenia had hoped that warmer spring weather
would slow transmission rates, but data from the United Arab Emirates,
which has enforced some of the world’s most draconian lockdown
measures before relaxing them, indicates that such a slowdown might
not happen. “The strategy going forward is to apply new hygiene
standards and adapt to life with coronavirus, since, I’m sure you’ll
agree, the prospect of life under lockdown for the next year is not a
realistic one,” the Prime Minister continued. Pashinyan also mentioned
that had data suggested that the virus could be thoroughly defeated
with one more month of lockdown “under the strictest conditions,” they
would have done so, but projections suggest otherwise.

While Armenia managed to successfully slow the spread of the virus
after applying strict lockdown measures in late March, the number of
new COVID-19 cases has steadily creeped up again in the last week of
April. These new cases have been attributed to more robust testing
methods, but also Easter holidays and warmer temperatures have
encouraged more and more citizens to break lockdown protocols.
Critics, however, have blamed authorities for inconsistently enforcing
the stay-at-home rules. The Prime Minister himself had previously
complained of seeing large groups of people on the street without
personal protective equipment in full view of police.

Authorities have responded that they can only do so much to enforce
the rules and that citizens must share some degree of responsibility
for shielding their elder family members. Armenia’s relaxing of
lockdown rules coincides with similar moves by other European nations
which have been affected by the virus. Neighboring Azerbaijan has
lifted all restrictions on freedom of circulation on the same day as
Armenia, while Georgia is lifting travel bans on Kutaisi and Batumi on
Tuesday and the capital Tbilisi by the end of the week.

However, Armenia continues to lead the region in terms of overall
cases and COVID-19 related deaths. Over the weekend, the country
registered both its single largest daily jump in new cases on April 30
with 132 confirmed. Sadly, four more people also passed away in a
24-hour period. Health Minister Torosyan mentioned that the majority
of the April 30 cases resulted from people who had attended the same
funeral; the general growth in cases, he explained, stems from
increased mobility since the previous restrictions were relaxed as
well as infections among healthcare workers which make up 320 or about
13.4 percent of all cases. “I understand that we all need to pay
respects, but a certain amount of personal responsibility is in order
here,” the Minister cautioned.

Torosyan reminded viewers that the point of the lockdown measures was
not to eradicate the virus, but to slow down the rate of infection
enough for first responders and the public health system to adapt to
the novel pandemic and allocate their resources to treat patients. “In
that goal, we have largely succeeded,” Torosyan said last week. In
March and April, the healthcare system was able to expand its
treatment capabilities to manage up to 4,000 cases. At the moment,
fewer than 900 patients require hospital care, while 350 patients
remain under isolated observation in hotels. The Minister added that
if the numbers continue to grow, they will simply keep asymptomatic
patients in self-quarantine. Armenia has greatly expanded its
detection capabilities, having conducted over 25 thousand tests since
the pandemic began at a rate of around one thousand tests per day.
Factories across the country are also producing face masks at a rate
of 200,000 a day.

The Labor and Social Affairs Ministry has also announced 15 emergency
assistance packages since the pandemic began, releasing 12 billion AMD
($25 million) in funds to subsidize utility payments and unemployment
insurance for hundreds of thousands of workers who have been
furloughed.

Armenia has registered 2,507 cases since March 1. In total, 1,071
patients have made full recoveries; 39 people have died. Doctors are
currently treating 1,393 active cases. To date (as of the publication
of The California Courier on May 4), Armenia has tested 24,942 people
for the disease. The State of Emergency remains in place until May 14.

This article appeared in The Armenian Weekly on May 4, 2020.
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3 -  Despite Pandemic, Chicago Armenians Protest Turkish Genocide Denial

CHICAGO, Ill. —A small group of protesters commemorated the 105th
anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Chicago’s iconic Daley Plaza
on April 24, 2020, demanding that Turkey return the portions of
Armenia that it occupies and make just reparations to the Armenian
people for its losses during the Genocide. Due to the current
shelter-in-place orders and the global pandemic, Daley Plaza, like
much of Chicago’s city center, was desolate.

Donning face masks and gloves and complying with social distancing
guidelines, protesters held aloft flags, signs and banners conveying
their demands, including an end to Turkey’s aggressive campaign of
genocide denial. The protest drew interest from the few passersby,
both on foot and in vehicles.

“2020 not only marks the 105th anniversary of the Genocide, it is also
the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Sevres, which delineated the
boundary between Turkey and Armenia,” said Greg Bedian on behalf of
the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). “The time has come for
Turkey to live up to its treaty obligations and respect Armenia’s
territorial integrity by immediately withdrawing its armed forces and
its illegal settlers from Armenia’s western territories,” he
continued.

Protesters led by the Chicago ARF standing in front of the famed
Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago, Illinois, April
24, 2020

Armenian Americans and other people of conscience in the Chicago area
have held protests annually for nearly 50 years to raise awareness of
Turkey’s 1915-1923 genocide of its indigenous Armenian, Greek and
Assyrian populations. Although recent protests have had hundreds of
demonstrators, this year’s protest was severely limited in scope due
to COVID- 19 restrictions on public gatherings imposed by Illinois
Governor J.B. Pritzker.

“Even though we were limited in numbers, we felt it was essential that
our message be conveyed in person this year as well,” stated Bedian.
The ARF Chicago “Christapor” Gomideh led the protest this year.

Other events organized by Chicago Armenians to honor the 1.5 million
Armenian victims of the Genocide are taking place online through the
end of April including special church services, memorial programs with
the participation of Illinois congressional representatives and a
global vigil organized through the #TogetherWeRemember Coalition.

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4-         Prominent Manhattan E.R. doctor on COVID-19 front lines
commits suicide

By John Annese

A prominent Manhattan emergency room doctor who had treated a
staggering number of coronavirus patients killed herself in Virginia,
authorities said Monday.

Dr. Lorna Breen, 49, the medical director of NewYork-Presbyterian
Allen Hospital’s emergency department, died by suicide in
Charlottesville, a spokesman for the local police department told the
Daily News.

Spokesman Tyler Hawn said police responded to a call Sunday seeking
medical help, and Breen was rushed to UVA Health System University
Hospital but succumbed to self-inflicted injuries.

“She gave what she had, and she’s a casualty of the war in the
trenches, as far as I’m concerned,” her father, Dr. Philip Breen, told
The News. “She’s a true hero.”

Breen’s father said the crush of coronavirus cases his daughter
handled was overwhelming, and that she herself became ill with
COVID-19, though she went back to work after a week and a half. She
had no history of depression, he said.

“She was a very outgoing, very energetic person who, I don’t know what
snapped, but something blew up in her, and so she ended up taking her
own life,” he said. “She just ran out of emotional gas.”

He said his daughter traveled to Charlottesville to stay with her
sister after the hospital sent her home a second time.

“She stayed home about a week and a half, but I think she felt guilty
about not being at work,” her father said. “The last time I talked to
her was before she went in for her 12-hour shift that she couldn’t
finish.”

“Just before she went back, she said that the ambulance had been
waiting outside the building for over three hours with sick people.
They couldn’t even get the people out of the ambulances in there,” he
added.

On Monday, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New
York-Presbyterian hailed her tireless devotion to her work. “Dr. Breen
is a hero who brought the highest ideals of medicine to the
challenging front lines of the emergency department,” the statement
said. “Words cannot convey the sense of loss we feel today.”

The statement added the hospital would focus on providing “support to
her family, friends, and colleagues as they cope with this news during
what is already an extraordinarily difficult time.”

The Charlottesville Police Department also extended its condolences.

“Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) can reduce the likelihood of
being infected, but what they cannot protect heroes like Dr. Lorna
Breen or our first responders against is the emotional and mental
devastation caused by this disease,” Charlottesville Police Chief
RaShall Brackney said.

Breen, a devout Christian who was one of four siblings, traveled the
world to give lectures on emergency medicine, and to hike and
snowboard, her grieving father recalled.

Breaking News Newsletter

“She was a salsa dancer and she played the cello,” he said. “She was
working on her master’s degree in business administration also.”

Breen loved New York City, he said. “I sort of hope that when this is
over, there may be a wall of heroes in New York someplace. She should
have her plaque on there . She gave it all for her city.”

Breen’s maternal grandparents were “refugees from the Armenian
massacres” according to her sister Jennifer. She added that her sister
Lorna and her mother had visited Armenia just a few years ago, and
they have deep pride for their Armenian roots.

This article appeared in The New York Daily News on April 28, 2020.
************************************************************************************************************************************************

5-         Armenian Engineers Instrumental in Creating

            FDA-approved NASA ventilator for COVID-19 treatment

            By Jenny Yettem

(The California Courier)—A new ventilator developed by NASA to treat
victims of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has received emergency
approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the space
agency said on April 30.

The NASA ventilator, a high-pressure device called VITAL, was
developed by engineers at the space agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
in Pasadena, California in response to the limited supply of
traditional ventilators for COVID-19 patients suffering from
respiratory distress.

“This FDA authorization is a key milestone in a process that
exemplifies the best of what government can do in a time of crisis,”
NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. “This ventilator is
one of countless examples of how taxpayer investments in space
exploration — the skills, expertise and knowledge collected over
decades of pushing boundaries and achieving firsts for humanity —
translate into advancements that improve life on Earth.”

FDA officials approved the VITAL ventilator (the name is short for
Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally) under the
administration’s Emergency Use Authorization of April 30. JPL
engineers developed the new ventilator in 37 days and tested it April
21 at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

The ventilator was one of several coronavirus-fighting devices and
technologies NASA showed President Donald Trump last week.

“VITAL poses several benefits in the national response to COVID-19,”
NASA officials said in the statement. “It can be built faster and
maintained more easily than a traditional ventilator, and is composed
of far fewer parts, many of which are currently available to potential
manufacturers through existing supply chains.”

The device can also be modified for use in field hospitals, like those
in some convention centers and hotels across the country, NASA
officials added. The VITAL ventilator is designed to last up to four
months and is not a replacement for dedicated hospital ventilators,
which can last years.

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), which manages JPL
for NASA, is offering a free license for the VITAL ventilator to
commercial medical manufacturers.

“Now that we have a design, we’re working to pass the baton to the
medical community, and ultimately patients, as quickly as possible,”
Fred Farina, chief innovation and corporate partnerships officer at
Caltech, said in the statement. “To that end, we are offering the
designs for licensing on a royalty-free basis during the time of the
pandemic.”

Seven Armenians—Mineh Badalian (Mechanical Engineering); Sarah
Hovsepian (Mechanical Engineering); Theodore Iskenderian (Mechanical
Engineering); Razmig Kandilian (Thermal Engineering); Torkom
Pailevanian (Robotics); Ara Kourchians (Robotics); and Arbi Karapetian
(Mechanical Engineering)—were part of the VITAL team.

As System Manager on this project, Karapetian was responsible for the
prototyping, testing and delivery of the VITAL unit, reporting
directly to the project manager.

Karapetian has been with JPL for 20 years, having started in the
electronics division, then moving to system engineering, then the
mechanical engineering division where he has been for the last 6
years. In his day-to-day role—as Deputy Section Manager for Payload
and Small Spacecraft, in Mechanical Engineering—he is responsible for
hiring, mentoring and training employees to ensure the integrity of
the products that the people in his section are working on. Normally
this section, which includes Theodore Iskenderian, Mineh Badalian and
Sarah Hovsepian, makes instruments for spacecraft like Mars 2020. One
of the notable instruments they built is an experiment to make oxygen
on Mars. Another is the Mars Helicopter, the world’s first
extraterrestrial powered aircraft.

The VITAL team, he explains, came together quite organically to face
an immediate problem head-on. “One of the great things about working
at JPL is that you have access to all kinds of experts. As the team
was learning about how to pivot our skills to building a ventilator,
we would realize we needed specific expertise—for instance with the
flow of gases, and how 100% oxygen concentration would affect the
materials. And getting the answers was relatively easy, as we would
call someone we know. Everyone is so willing to help. Everyone
committed their talents, energy and motivation,” said Karapetian.

The team worked around the clock every day, often exchanging emails
and fielding requests in the middle of the night. “You could send
someone a request at 2 a.m., and get a reply by 2:02 a.m. The energy
was high. We were exhausted but it was one of those things we knew had
to be seen through completion. I’ve had the benefit of working on some
amazing projects like the Mars Curiosity Rover. That was a once in a
lifetime experience. I would say this is also in that category,” said
Karapetian.

Most of the team was working remotely. There were about 10 to 15
people who would go in to the lab, equipped with Personal Protective
Equipment (PPE) to do the fabrication on site. The rest of the team
was working remotely using teleconferencing tools. “What’s also
remarkable is that this team had never worked together before, never
worked on a medical device, or this remotely on anything before. We
figured out how to do this in 37 days—something novel, using
collaborative and online tools we’d never used before. There’s a sense
of some magic for it to have worked out this way. It’s the power of
the human spirit,” said Karapetian.

Sarah Hovsepian completed both her undergraduate and graduate
education in architecture, and chose to work at NASA because of the
opportunity to explore her diverse interests. “I never work in one
specific field but I love combining as many fields as I can to solve a
problem. I enjoy looking at a problem from many different
perspectives,” she said, noting how a course “How to Make Almost
Anything” pushed her to explore graphics, art, engineering and design
to build products and structures that accommodate the human
experience. While completing her graduate program at MIT, she was
involved in the revolutionary Maker Movement—a convergence of
independent inventors, designers, tinkerers, computer hackers and
traditional artisans, who create imaginative and innovative products
using open-source learning, contemporary design and powerful personal
technology like 3-D printers.

Hovsepian navigated two positions with the team, essentially guiding
the project through from start to finish. First, as executive officer,
she was responsible for ensuring the team had everything they needed
to be organized in planning, coordinating and completing the
objectives for the ventilator device. Second, in systems engineering,
she worked on the verification and validation team that conducts tests
on the prototype to confirm the device will perform as stated in the
design requirements.

“My particular background helped from the sense that I’m a big picture
thinker. Coming from the architecture world, you have to look at a
building system from many different angles, parts and systems. In this
project there were many key decisions, and it emerged where I created
diagrams of options we could take as a team—mapping out what could
happen. It’s the bird’s eye view, to assist the team in assessing
various options across the board,” said Hovsepian.

Hovsepian worked directly with the task manager, who had come up with
the idea for the ventilator. She was his right-hand person, in
coordinating and organizing the team in such a short time frame—and
also in setting up the data infrastructure, tools and technology to
ensure the team could collaborate while working remotely.

“We did it because it was urgent. That whole part of my life will be
ingrained in my mind forever. It’s a piece of history, what we’re
going through globally. Everybody at the end of the day, regardless of
nationality or identity, is stepping up to the plate to help each
other. Everybody is coming together as a community, supporting each
other. This is what’s beautiful. That has been the lesson that has
emerged for us. Life is fragile it can change instantly. In the end,
it’s what we do for our loved ones, our community and ultimately
humanity that carries us all through this difficult time,” said
Hovsepian.

The team came up with two distinct ventilator designs. The first is
the VITAL pneumatic unit designed to be used in a hospital setting
where there is compressed air and oxygen plumbed into the walls. The
second design—the VITAL compressor unit—is in the process of being
completed and prototyped, and should be tested around May 14. This
ventilator would be used in tent hospitals or any place without access
to compressed air, because it creates its own pressure.

Karapetian explained that current prediction models show the United
States may have the needed amount of ventilators, so NASA is looking
at this project in terms of helping foreign countries that are
projecting a great demand for ventilators for COVID-19 patients. There
has been interest from all over the world, especially Africa, the
Middle East and South America. Karapetian explained that manufacturers
would need to optimize the design for large-quantity manufacturing,
taking into account things such as whether plastic or aluminum housing
would be more cost-effective.

“To some level when we go through hardship, everyone wants to do
whatever they can to help others. You think globally but also about
your own community. When I think about my immediate relatives who are
older and not in optimal health, the thought of them needing something
like this and not being able to get it—that’s a driving force on a
personal level. And as you start propagating that out—the sense of
responsibility becomes enormous. When you identify that there is
something you can do, it pushes you over the edge to work around the
clock to get it done,” said Karapetian, who noted that he has been
grateful to have the opportunity to spend almost uninterrupted time
with his family throughout the quarantine.

“It’s remarkable to be able to see your loved ones this consistently.
A lot of us didn’t know what that means because we were up at 7 a.m.,
and out until 7 p.m. working and running around. The silver lining of
this project—where we were all going on four hours of sleep—is that
I’ve been blessed to be working on something inspirational to me,
while being able to see my family and enjoy their presence,” said
Karapetian.

“I was also very proud that we were representing the Armenian
community,” said Hovsepian, who credits her formative years at
Armenian Mesrobian School with shaping her educational and career
path. “All my teachers, my classmates, my principal—if only they could
see now how the opportunities they gave me have shaped the person that
I’ve become. I’m proud of my values, education, and heritage. This has
ultimately always inspired and motivated me to help others. I wish I
could reach out to them and say ‘thank you.’”

The team is now working with UCLA to test the second design, which has
not yet been tested at an outside facility. Hovsepian is now managing
and coordinating to make sure that all the testing goes through
smoothly between JPL and UCLA. “I continue to track the big picture
schedule for the team. I’m interested in data visualization, and
lessons learned from everyone on the team—I’m working with the team to
take this information and show it in a graphic that will tell the
story of what happened in the last 40 days,” said Hovsepian. “The
project will come to a close in a couple weeks. We’re looking to the
finish line. As soon as we have the compressor tested, and get FDA
approval—we’ve hit a home run on all our major milestones on the
project.”

This article appeared in The California Courier on May 7, 2020.

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