Author: Emma Nadirian

1 -        After 105 Years, the Turkish President
            Still Planning to Cover up the Genocide
            By Harut Sassounian
            Publisher, The California Courier
            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2-         Despite Public Health Measures, COVID-19 Continues to
Spread in Armenia
3 -        Business Tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan Charged with Bribery, Corruption
4-         Gary Chivichyan ESPYS nomination a first for Armenian Diaspora
5-         AIWA-SF Community Spotlight: David Djanikian

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1 -        After 105 Years, the Turkish President
            Still Planning to Cover up the Genocide
            By Harut Sassounian
            Publisher, The California Courier
            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

The High Advisory Board of the Turkish Presidency met last Tuesday for
five hours to discuss how to respond “to groundless and anti-Turkey
allegations” regarding the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The Advisory
Board includes President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ismail Kahraman (former
Chairman of Parliament), Bulent Arinch (former Deputy Prime Minister),
Cemil Chichek (former Chairman of Parliament), Koksal Toptan (former
Chairman of Parliament), Mehmet Ali Shahin (former Chairman of
Parliament), Yildirim Akbulut (former Prime Minister), President’s
Chief of Staff Metin Kiratli and Presidential Communications Director
Fahrettin Altun.

It is very satisfactory to Armenians worldwide that the Turkish
government, after lying about the occurrence of the Armenian Genocide
for a century, going to extraordinary lengths to blackmail other
countries economically and politically, spending hundreds of millions
of dollars on hiring lobbying firms and publishing denialist
propaganda, is spending long hours wondering how to counter “the
Armenian lobby.”

This means that all of the Turkish efforts for 105 years to deny the
Armenian Genocide have been in vain. Turkey has wasted a huge amount
of resources and time to deny the undeniable! The Turkish government
is welcome to try again to convince the world that no such genocide
has taken place. Eventually, the Turkish leaders will give up seeing
that they cannot persuade anyone to believe their lies. The day will
come when the Turkish government will admit that it is much easier to
tell the truth than to continue its useless strategy of distorting a
well-established historical fact. It is in Turkey’s best interest to
come to terms with the Armenian government and its Diaspora and
negotiate a proper compensation and restitution for the damages caused
to the Armenian people during the Genocide. Once Turkey acknowledges
the historical facts and makes amends, it will no longer have to worry
about the world’s reaction to the Armenian Genocide. On the contrary,
the Turkish leader will receive accolades from the international
community for facing the facts and dealing honestly with its past
crimes.

In the meantime, the Turkish government is foolishly continuing its
hopeless campaign of denial of the Armenian Genocide. After last
week’s five-hour High Advisory Board meeting behind closed doors,
President Erdogan’s Communications Director Fahrettin Altun relayed
the President’s following statement: “hostility seeds that were tried
to be sown through distorted historical events would not be able to
find the opportunity to flourish in the land of truth.” He accused the
“Armenian lobby” of exploiting the “challenging and painful era
endured by all Ottoman citizens for the sake of political calculations
through lies and slanders that were invented by various power groups.”
Furthermore, he said that during the meeting, “comprehensive steps”
were discussed to prevent the Armenian lobby from using the 1915
events to “defame Turkey and our nation and also the propaganda made
by countries through unrealistic allegations that manipulate the issue
with political calculations.” The Turkish Presidential meeting also
deliberated on projects and activities set to “shed light” on the
issues with historical and legal aspects, along with “facts for the
national and international public,” he added.

This new Turkish Genocide denial plan may have been triggered by the
resolutions acknowledging the Armenian Genocide by the U.S. House of
Representatives (405-11 votes) and the unanimous vote of the U.S.
Senate last fall.

The question is why would Turkey’s leaders spent five hours
deliberating on genocide denial at a time when the coronavirus
pandemic is raging in the country, its economy is in shambles, the
Turkish Lira has collapsed and Erdogan is losing the public’s support.
According to some analysts, this is Erdogan’s tactic to deviate the
Turkish public’s attention from his misrule and misadventures both
within and outside the country.

Last month in a TV speech, Pres. Erdogan, showing his exasperation at
the multiple problems of his government, once again lashed out at the
“Armenian lobby,” among others. He vowed: “We will not give up before
the forces of evil, either FETO, the PKK, the Armenian and Greek
lobbies, or centers of hostility in the Persian Gulf.”

The Armenian government quickly reacted to Pres. Erdogan’s lies about
the Armenian Genocide. This is a welcome development, as previous
Armenian governments ignored all such Turkish outbursts. The Armenian
Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Anna Naghdalyan responded: “The
statements made by the Turkish President on justifying the Armenian
Genocide and insulting its victims are not a novelty and are
manifestations of hate speech, which have an impact on maintaining and
strengthening the atmosphere of xenophobia against Armenians in that
country…. Denialism has no future, no matter who and how frames it.
Despite the efforts of the authorities of Turkey to suppress the
truth, the truth has been prevailing.”

The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy also issued
a statement calling Erdogan’s latest plans to deny the Armenian
Genocide a “dangerous xenophobic policy of the Turkish authorities,
directed against the activists of the Armenian cause…. Unfortunately,
the denial of the Armenian Genocide and the incitement of hatred
against Armenians are a state policy in Turkey.”

In addition, the Armenian National Committee of America Western Region
along with Assyrian, Greek and Jewish organizations issued a joint
statement slamming the Turkish government’s latest announcement on
countering the Armenian Genocide: “Understanding that denial is the
final stage of genocide, enforcing the erasure of a people’s history
and suffering, we call on people of good conscience to bring awareness
to the plight of the victims of genocide both past and present, to
hold accountable those who seek to distort historical truth, and
ensure that never again will the world watch in silence while genocide
is perpetrated.”

My advice to President Erdogan and his cronies is to abandon Turkey’s
century-long failed efforts at denial of the facts of the Armenian
Genocide, acknowledge the truth and embark on a mutually agreed plan
to compensate for the losses suffered by the Armenian nation as a
result of the Genocide.

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2-         Despite Public Health Measures, COVID-19 Continues to
Spread in Armenia   By Raffi Elliott

YEREVAN— The novel coronavirus COVID-19 is continuing to spread in
Armenia despite its government’s intensifying efforts to make people
practice social distancing and wear face masks, Prime Minister Nikol
Pashinyan said on Thursday, June 18.

“We are not succeeding in lowering [infection] numbers and we know the
reason for that,” he said. “The reason is that the anti-epidemic rules
are not widely followed, and we have to use increasingly tougher
administrative methods for the purpose of [greater] compliance with
the anti-epidemic rules.”

Armenia has registered a total of 20,588 cases of COVID-19, of which
10,980 are still active. More than 360 people have died since the
pandemic reached the country on March 1st, making it the
worst-affected country in the Caucasus.

Health officials in Armenia say that while the pandemic situation in
the country remains critical, the adopted public health policies are
in line with the latest recommendations based on international data
regarding virus mitigation. “Wearing a face mask is critical for
halting the spread of the virus,” insisted Artavazd Vanyan, director
of the National Center for Disease Control (CDC) on Monday. Notably,
the CDC director stressed the importance of wearing masks correctly
even when interacting with neighbors and maintaining physical distance
when hosting small gatherings in one’s home as crucial to reducing the
contagion rate.

Incorrect mask wearing and intra-community transmission have been
cited as the primary sources of new cases recently. Health Minister
Arsen Torosyan started releasing the street names of recent COVID-19
patients on his Facebook page in an effort to visualize contagion
clusters. “The Health Ministry’s recent analysis has uncovered that
many of the patients testing positive for COVID-19 live in the same
neighborhood, the same street or even the same building,” Torosyan
announced on Monday. “This data comes to confirm that people aren’t
wearing face masks in their neighborhoods.”

The Prime Minister also touched upon this issue during a question and
answer period that same day. Responding to a journalist’s question
about the effectiveness of lockdown measures, Pashinyan clarified that
enforcing a stricter or longer lockdown would likely not have yielded
any significant difference in rates. “Sure, we could clamp down on
people strolling on Republic Square, but it would be impossible to
effectively police the movements of neighbors having coffee or
visiting each other in their communal yards––which is a much more
serious source of contagion,” Pashinyan said. “Extending the lockdown
would just result in more bored neighbors spreading the virus.” He
reiterated that the only solution is wide public compliance with mask
wearing guidelines. Pashinyan also admitted to several errors on the
part of his government in handling the pandemic, including the failure
to encourage social distancing earlier. According to Pashinyan, the
authorities believe that there are also “tens of thousands of
asymptomatic cases” in the country of about 3 million. All Armenians
should therefore treat each other as potential carriers of the virus,
said the premier.

Despite those comments, the Prime Minister did issue orders for law
enforcement to begin routine patrols of courtyards to ensure
compliance with public health directives. Other government and law
enforcement bodies have been deputized to assist the police in
monitoring compliance, greatly expanding their capacity to do so. They
have also been instructed to hand out free masks to anyone caught
outside without one. Still, the fine for not wearing a mask in public
stands at 10,000 AMD ($20). An additional 10,000 AMD fine may apply to
those not carrying valid government-issued identification. Regulators
have issued almost 35 thousand fines to individuals and businesses for
violating health and safety protocols since the State of Emergency
began in March. Almost a thousand restaurants and supermarkets have
also been forced shut down due to violations in that same time period.

Several weeks since the public wearing of masks became mandatory, the
daily rate for new infections seems to have slowed. This trend
continues in spite of a considerable expansion of testing
capabilities. The Health Minister expressed optimism at those figures
on Wednesday. In a Facebook post, Torosyan shared a graph which had
projected Armenia as passing the 20-thousand case mark by June 12. The
actual figure for that date was 15,281. “The mass anti-epidemic
movement is slowly yielding results. Despite the high number of total
cases, the epidemiological trends over the last 10 days are more
positive than expected,” Torosyan wrote. The Ministry of Health also
announced that there were no more shortages of hospital facilities to
treat COVID-19 cases for the moment.

While the overall situation shows modest signs of improvement,
hospitals continue to struggle to care for critical cases. This week,
overwhelmed doctors in Armenia were reinforced by a medical team from
France, which headed directly from the tarmac at Zvartnots Airport to
the St. Gregory the Illuminator Medical Center—one of the main
facilities dealing with the pandemic—to lend a hand. Their mission is
expected to last at least 10 days.

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3 -        Business Tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan Charged with Bribery, Corruption
By Raffi Elliott

 YEREVAN (The Armenian Weekly)—On June 21, a Yerevan Court decided
that the leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik
Tsarukyan will not be held in pre-trial detention. The legal process
will continue, but the businessman will remain free until the trial.

Tsarukyan, Armenia’s wealthiest businessman has been formally charged
with corruption and bribery. The maximum penalty is five years of
imprisonment. According to his lawyer, Emin Khachatryan, late on the
night of June 16, the National Security Service (NSS) filed a motion
with the Yerevan Municipal Court to detain Tsarukyan under Article
154.2 of Armenia’s criminal code which deals with political bribery.

This development came hours after the National Assembly voted to
revoke Tsarukyan’s immunity from prosecution—which he was entitled to
as a parliamentarian—upon the request of Prosecutor-General Artur
Davtyan.

In his speech to lawmakers, Davtyan accused Tsarukyan of creating and
leading “an organized group that bought more than 17,000 votes for his
Prosperous Armenia Party during parliamentary elections held in April
2017.” Alleged evidence of these claims was found in the businessman’s
mansion in an early-morning raid on Sunday, June 14. Investigators
reportedly uncovered piles of handwritten and signed letters from
Tsarukyan’s known deputies formally pledging to provide him with a
desired amount of votes by any means necessary for the 2017
parliamentary election. According to Davtyan, the documents even
included voter names, passport numbers and the amount of bribes
provided.

As Parliament debated the motion, employees of Tsarukyan’s various
business interests attempted to block Yerevan’s Acharyan Street which
leads to the tycoon’s mansion using buses and trucks registered to his
Multi Group holding company. However, a video posted online depicted
passersby removing those vehicles from the road. Another group of
Tsarukyan supporters was detained by police in front of the National
Assembly for violating the ban on mass gatherings under the State of
Emergency.

Parliament passed the motion in a secret ballot on June 16 with 87 of
the 137 MPs voting in favor. Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia
legislators abstained from voting.

Tsarukyan has dismissed the accusations as a politically motivated
retaliation against his recent public calls for the government’s
resignation over what he claims was poor handling of the ongoing
pandemic. “Going against Tsarukyan marks the end of your Revolution,”
Tsarukyan declared on the debate floor, addressing himself in the
third person. Parliamentary Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan responded that he
is guaranteed a fair trial under Armenia’s constitution.

Several extra-parliamentary opposition parties joined the two
parliamentary opposition factions in condemning the charges on
Tsarukyan as ‘politically motivated.’ In a written statement, the
Bright Armenia Party claimed to “strongly condemn” the criminal
prosecutions “resulting from political expediency and carried out
through a selective enforcement of the law.” This statement was echoed
by the now-ousted Republican Party communiqué which called for the
“resignation of the impotent government of Nikol Pashinyan” for his
alleged authoritarian behavior. Incidentally, the Republican Party
itself successfully silenced a similar bout of public descent by
Tsarukyan through threats of auditing and corruption charges a mere
five years earlier.

The raid and ensuing charges have sparked vigorous debate among
analysts and the public alike over the state of the country’s
transitional justice and anti-corruption efforts. While there is
widespread consensus that the charges are valid, some have questioned
whether Pashinyan’s government was employing intimidation tactics
against political opponents not unlike those used by the previous
regime.

Tsarukyan, who is widely accused of using his close relationship with
former president Robert Kocharian (who is currently in pre-trial
detention himself) to amass millions in assets and wrestle control
over a vast business empire, became somewhat of an oddity as one of
the few oligarchs to survive the Velvet Revolution as a political
force.

The oligarch-turned-politician had managed to cultivate an image of an
uneasy, yet mutually beneficial alliance with the Pashinyan
government, begging the question as to whether Pashinyan simply
cracked down on him when he turned into a political liability.

While the timing for these charges may seem on the nose, Dr. Nerses
Kopalyan, a political science professor at the University of Nevada
postulates that such a causation/correlation argument “makes no
chronological sense.”

Tsarukyan and his various business dealings have been subject to a
series of separate investigations long before this apparent public
spat with the Pashinyan government. Tsarukyan’s holding company Multi
Group has been audited by both tax and health and safety inspectors on
several occasions. His personal bodyguard, Edward Babayan, was
arrested on assault charges in July of 2018. Multi Group CEO Sedrak
Arustamyan was arrested on multiple charges including bribery, tax
evasion and money laundering relating to the construction of the North
South Highway. Vahagn Gevorgyan, the mayor of the commuter-town of
Abovyan (widely considered to be Tsarukyan’s seat of power) is also
facing charges for allowing Multi Group to illegally privatize
municipal property for condo development.

The charges do not coincide with the first time Tsarukyan publicly
criticized the authorities either. While his party initially made
overtures to the new government, they took part in an attempt to
impede a motion for snap elections back in 2018, in which they
eventually won just over eight percent of the popular vote. Since
then, Tsarukyan has publicly derided the new government for its
refusal to extend tariff protection to his failing businesses,
accusing it of mismanaging the economy and fostering an unhealthy
business climate. He also recently refused to pay his own employees’
wages when the government announced lockdowns at the start of the
ongoing pandemic.

Tsarukyan is not the first public figure associated with the former
government to paint himself as the victim of political repression for
criticizing the new authorities. Other notable figures to make the
same assertions include Mikayel Minasyan (former President Serzh
Sargsyan’s self-exiled son-in-law), Gagik Khachaturyan, Ruben
Hayrapetyan and other oligarchs widely accused of using their ties to
the previous government for self-enrichment.

Political analyst Richard Giragosian described Sunday’s raid on
Tsarukyan’s compound and subsequent arrest as a strategic
“determination to show an end to the previous culture of impunity that
prevailed under the old government for many wealthy businessmen that
entered politics.” The events of the previous week have also, in
Giragosian’s view, exposed Tsarukyan as having “no real power base of
his own” beyond those financially dependent on him. This view was
echoed by CivilNet’s Tatul Hakobyan who characterized Tsarukyan as
“playing the wrong hand and paying dearly for it.”

On June 17, Prosperous Armenia MPs announced that they would call for
a parliamentary inquiry into the government’s handling of the COVID-19
crisis, as well as a constitutional appeal to the ban on public
demonstrations during the State of Emergency. Opposition party Bright
Armenia might also join in this motion.

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4-         Gary Chivichyan ESPYS nomination a first for Armenian Diaspora

LOS ANGELES—Gary Chivichyan dubbed the “Armenian Sniper” for his
noteworthy skill at long-range shooting and scoring is an NBA prospect
who completed playing his senior year for the Pacific Tigers at the
University of the Pacific. He was recruited by former NBA star, coach
Damon Stoudamire. The Pacific Tigers have had one of their most
successful seasons in 2019-2020 and Chivichyan was a big part of that
success finishing second in team scoring and first in 3 point field
goals made. Chivichyan, who grew up in Hollywood, California was also
the only division one basketball player this last season that was
Armenian.

Chivichyan says “Growing up, I always had a chip on my shoulder and I
always believed I would achieve great things for myself and my
heritage…I always aspire to be a leader for my community and a role
model for the Armenian youth….I put in a lot of work to get the
results I have today” That work ethic, confidence, and mindset will be
necessary to play at the NBA level as he will attempt to play
professionally and break cultural boundaries. “I want to be the first
Armenian to ever make it into the NBA,” says Chivichyan. He has
currently signed with NBA agent Ara Vartanian and has NBA workouts
with multiple teams. Most recently, Chivichyan competed in an NBA
scrimmage, where he impressed scouts not only with his precision
shooting but his ability to score the ball in a multitude of ways and
play hard-nosed defense.

As recognition of his athletic ability and prolific 3-point shooting
skills on the basketball court, Chivichyan has been nominated for the
ESPYS 2020 Honorary Outstanding Senior award by the Nominating
Committee. He is proud to be the first Armenian nominee in the history
of the ESPYS awards.

The ESPYS or Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly awards recognize
individual and team athletic achievements that took place in the
calendar year preceding the ceremony. The ESPYS are for sport what the
Academy Awards are for film or the Grammys are for music. The ESPYS
first started out in 1993 and since 2004 the voting process has
changed and the winners of each award category are not solely voted by
the sports fans but also by sportswriters, executives, sports experts,
and ESPN personalities. This year the ESPYS will be a little bit
different due to the coronavirus pandemic, with a virtual show that is
scheduled for June 21 on the ABC / ESPN network. Following his
nomination and making it to the top 4 nominees in his category,
Chivichyan is now waiting for his interview with ESPN producers before
they make the final decision.

Gary Chivichyan’s passion for his Armenian heritage is truly fueled by
the thousands of years of hardships and obstacles that the Armenians
have had to endure and overcome, empowering and shaping him into the
athlete that he is today. Chivichyan belongs to a generation that
equally represents the American lifestyle, culture, and ideals whilst
not failing to honor and promote his Armenian heritage. He has dual
citizenship in both Armenia and the US and he is a member of the
National Basketball team of Armenia.

The coronavirus pandemic has put things in a different perspective for
many professionals around the world but Chivichyan is determined to
get out of this health crisis unscathed and empowered to keep going
after his dreams to train professionally. Gym access has been
difficult but he has also set up a gym at his house in Glendale,
California in order to keep up with his training schedule. He is
determined to put in the work so he can stay on top of his game.

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5-         AIWA-SF Community Spotlight: David Djanikian

My name is David Djanikian. I’m 51 years old, born and raised in San
Francisco. My dad is Armenian, raised in France, and my mom is African
American, raised in San Francisco. My wife, Jennie, is also mixed
race. Together, we have two daughters, both under the age of 10.
Between me and my wife, we represent Armenian, French, African
American, Filipina, and Irish cultures.

My parents always taught me that no matter what, all people are equal
and to treat everyone with respect. Race, age, religious beliefs, and
sexual orientation simply do not matter. Everyone is a human, period.

My dad would enthusiastically take us to Armenian Church and the
Armenian Food Festival. He would talk about the history of Armenians,
how much they had to endure with the Armenian Genocide, and how
unbelievably strong and resilient we are. When I was in high school, I
was invited to join the church basketball team. When I told my dad
that I decided to play, he was elated. The team would play in regular
local leagues. Everyone treated me well. I never felt out of place
because I was half Armenian. When I was in my early 20’s I was asked
to play for the San Francisco Homenetmen basketball team. As we played
more and traveled farther, I started feeling less welcome. When I
would walk around I could hear people say, “Hey there’s that Sev/Armo
guy from San Francisco.” Sev means “Black” in Armenian. While they may
not have meant to be hurtful, to me it caused division and had a
negative connotation. One time a game was paused, and I was requested
to show ID to prove I was really Armenian. Over time, being labeled
the “Sev-Armenian” made me sad, because I have such respect for our
Armenian community and am a proud Armenian.

When I would come home from tournaments, my dad would ask me how
things went. I would tell him I had a great time. I kept the
differences I felt because of my skin color to myself. I could never
tell him what really happened because it would have broken his heart.

It was important to me to keep showing up. My love for sports and the
Armenian community was stronger than the comments I would hear or the
differences I would feel. Along with playing on a team I also started
coaching.

Playing with Homenetmen and also coaching for over 10 years, I made
lifelong friends and incredible memories. I also learned that I was
the first African American/Armenian to play for ACYO, AGBU and
Homenetmen. That made me feel remarkably proud. While, at the time, I
didn’t have anyone to lean on for support, I am grateful for those who
made me feel welcome. I hope my dedication to the community helped
pave the way for other African-American/Armenians to participate.

With everything going on in the world today, the need for compassion
and understanding is critical. As an African-American/Armenian and
father, I hope my daughters will grow up in a world where differences
are celebrated. Where we embrace each other as human beings.

We are currently living in a scary time for African Americans and
people of color. We all need to collectively come together and lead
with compassion.

I want to end this with something I saw on Instagram (written by Doug
Williford) that talks about people questioning the Black Lives Matter
movement: “If my wife comes to me in obvious pain and asks the
question, ‘Do you love me?’, an answer of ‘I love everyone,’ would be
truthful, but also hurtful and cruel in the moment. If a co-worker
comes to me upset and says, ‘My father just died,’ a response of
‘Everyone’s parents die,’ would be truthful, but also hurtful and
cruel in the moment. So when a friend speaks up in a time of obvious
pain and hurt and says, ‘Black lives matter,’ a response of ‘All lives
matter,’ is truthful. But it’s hurtful and cruel in the moment.”

David Djanikian has over 15 years professional sales experience across
all sectors in the IT industry. He is currently an Enterprise Account
Manager at DigiCert. David is an avid athlete, coach and referee. He
is active in the community. Happily married he has two daughters and
lives in San Francisco, California.

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