Armenian-American reality TV star Kim Kardashian has commemorated the Armenian Genocide on April 24th by tweeting : “We made a promise we would never forget the Armenian genocide”, with the photo of a myosotis flower, the official symbol of the Armenian Genocide centennial commemoration events.
She also re-tweeted The Promise producer Eric Esrailian’s photo from a visit to the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan in 2018.
Kim Kardashian and her sisters personally visited the memorial during a trip to Armenia in 2015.
The reality TV star also shared photos from her husband Kanye West’s Yerevan concert of the same year.
The film makes its world premiere Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Emagine Theater in Royal Oak.
If you grew up in metro Detroit during the 1970s, 80s or 90s, you know the Dittrich Furs theme song as well as you know Stroh’s or Vernors.
The man who wrote that tune, Dan Yessian, also wrote familiar tunes for Dodge and Whirlpool.
But Yessian’s life took a dramatic turn when he was asked to write a classical composition to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the slaughter of the Armenian people by the Turks.
A new documentary about that project, An Armenian Trilogy, makes its world premiere Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Emagine Theater in Royal Oak as part of the Freep Film Festival.
Yessian and film editor Stewart Shevin join Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson to talk about the documentary.
Click on the audio player above to hear that conversation.
https://wdet.org/posts/2019/04/12/88067-composer-dan-yessian-talks-an-armenian-trilogy-documentary/
The purpose of the increase is to eliminate the risk of extreme poverty among pensioners
Armenia has increased old-age, social security payouts for people who have never worked. Now, instead of the previous 16 thousand drams ($33), they will receive a pension of 25,500 drams ($52.5) from the state.
About 85,000 Armenian citizens will receive two months’ backpay (up to 1 January 2019) for the increase of the monthly payout.
Among the recipients are those who have never worked, as well as citizens who have work experience but receive a pension of less than 25,500 AMD ($52.5) per month, said Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs of Armenia Smbat Saiyan.
Saiyan says the main goal of the initiative is to eliminate extreme poverty among pensioners:
“There are about half a million pensioners in Armenia, of which 17 thousand have a pension below the minimum threshold of extreme poverty.”
The last time pensions and benefits increased in Armenia was in 2015. Then, the increase was about four dollars a month.
Saiyan said that the increase will also affect people with disabilities.
He noted that previously the method of payments to people with different disabilities was unfair – everyone received the same amount, and the only difference was in the number and names of medicines that were provided to them free of charge.
“Under the new bill, it is proposed to increase benefits by 40% for citizens in the first disability group, and by 20% for persons in the second disability group. Thus, the amount for persons in the first disability group will increase by 6,400 drams [$13], and for those in the second group it will increase by 3,200 drams [$6.50],” said Saiyan.
These reforms will cost the state 110 million AMD, approximately $2,724,000 a year.
At the beginning of the year, the Armenian government adopted a bill according to which people will not lose their right to receive family or social benefits due to an increase in old-age pensions, disability benefits or in the case of a loss of a family’s main earner.
Arsen Manukyan, then Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, explained why this decision was made:
“There is a risk that most [vulnerable] families may lose their right to social benefits. For example, the size of payments may increase by 4 – 6 thousand drams [$8 – 12] because of which the family will lose 18 thousand drams of social benefit [$37]. But thanks to the above-mentioned changes, this will be avoided.”
Armenian National Committee of America
Reaffirms Support for OSCE Minsk Group
WASHINGTON—The Armenian National Committee of America Thursday reaffirmed its principled opposition to the “Madrid Principles,” a deeply flawed and recklessly asymmetrical proposal advanced by the OSCE Minsk Group regarding Artsakh’s status and security.
See the ANCA statement below.
The ANCA supports the OSCE Minsk Group negotiations as a constructive platform for continued talks but rejects its current proposal (known as the “Madrid Principles”) as a deeply flawed and ultimately counter-productive plan that sets back the cause of peace and raises the risks of renewed war.
There is no basis – in the context of Armenian history, Azerbaijan’s stated policy, democratic principles, international law, or conflict-resolution precedent – to believe that:
The free citizens of the independent Artsakh Republic, having built a thriving democracy following decades of Soviet rule and Azerbaijani aggression, deserve the same democratic freedoms and human rights that we cherish as Americans.
Artsakh is, at its heart, a very American story, representing the victory of a free people over foreign rule.
The citizens of the Republic of Artsakh, through their democratically elected government, are entitled to make decisions regarding their destiny, including through Artsakh’s full return to any and all international talks regarding status and security issues.
Artsakh – a democratic, Christian, pro-Western republic, standing strong against the forces of intolerance, deserves strong American support.
We encourage the United States to exercise continued leadership in the OSCE Minsk Group and encourage all parties to:
‘I myself am the harshest critic of my own government’ – Pashinyan
12:54,
YEREVAN, MARCH 19, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said he himself is the harshest critic of his own government.
Pashinyan was asked by a reporter at a news conference today what he would criticize the most in the incumbent government if he were opposition.
“There is no restriction of the freedom of speech or critique in Armenia in order for me to imagine myself opposition and criticize the incumbent government. I can reassure that I myself am the biggest and harshest critic of the government in Armenia. Be certain, there is no substantiated criticism for me to hear from someone else and then myself. I hear all critique firstly from myself,” he said.
Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan
Wolf Gruner, founding director of the Center for Advanced Genocide Research, introduces the panel, which includes, from left to right, Lorna Touryan Miller, Salpi Ghazarian, Professor Richard Hovannisian and Tamar Mashigian
LOS ANGELES (USC Shoah Foundation)—It started with a group of students in a Volkswagen van, traveling around Fresno with bulky tape recorders at the behest of their professor.
It became the world’s largest known collection of oral histories from survivors of the 1915 Armenian Genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Turks.
The roughly 1,000 audio-only interviews recorded by students of UCLA history professor Richard Hovannisian between 1972 and 2000 were entrusted to USC Shoah Foundation.
On March 5, Hovannisian and three of his star former students – Salpi Ghazarian, Lorna Touryan Miller and Tamar Mashigian – gave a talk at Doheny Library about how they amassed such a large repository of memory at so crucial a time, when denial of the atrocities by Turkey – which still denies the genocide – was in full throttle.
“We had something to prove,” said Ghazarian, now the director of the USC Institute of Armenian Studies, which co-sponsored the lecture with USC Shoah Foundation’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research. “This was a period when denialism was huge. We were on a scavenger hunt to mine the details that gave body and soul to what this generation lived.”
Wolf Gruner, founding director of the Center for Advanced Genocide Research with Prof. Richard Hovannisian
Hovannisian, now a professor emeritus at UCLA and president’s fellow at Chapman University, never set out to become one of the world’s foremost experts on Armenian history.
As a boy in the San Joaquin Valley, Hovannisian – the son of a survivor of the genocide that wiped out as many as 1.5 million Armenians during World War I – just wanted to fit in with his American friends.
But after he had rediscovered his heritage, learned Armenian, and then moved to Fresno to take a teaching job in the late 1950s, he was struck by the large number of Armenian families in certain neighborhoods.
“Block after block after block were Armenians,” he said. “And in the summer they would sit on their porches. And as you walk by they would greet you. And if you had a little baby in a stroller, it was even better. I now realize that every single one of those people had a story. Every one of those people had been a survivor.”
By the 1960s, he realized that the older generation was rapidly disappearing. It dawned on him that their firsthand accounts of the genocide were being lost to the ages.
He resolved to capture their stories. To do this he enlisted his students. It was a tall order.
“How do you teach students to do oral history when you have one class session to talk about the history of the Armenian genocide, and you have a second class session to talk about methods of oral history?” he said.
But while some of the students blazed through the questionnaire and thought they were done after 20 minutes, many interviews came back three-to-six hours long, rich with detail about not only the incomprehensible brutality – the forced marches, the disembowelments, the kidnapping, the rapes – but also the shared history, culture and communities that were eviscerated.
Mashigian, Miller and Ghazarian were among his standouts – students who grasped the gravity of the mission at hand. All of them are descendants of survivors.
Mashigian had a grandmother who, like so many other Armenian women, escaped death by living with Arab families and had her face tattooed by her captors to signify that she was property of a tribe.
“My interviewing started a long time ago because I always used to ask questions when I was a child,” she said.
Years later, she was one of Hovannisian’s first students. Back then, six or seven of them would pile into the van and head to Fresno, where they would be dropped off at an elderly survivor’s house. After the interview, they’d make a call to get picked up and dropped off at another residence for another interview. They’d spend the night at Hovannisian’s mother’s house.
“Professor Hovannisian had a questionnaire, he had a strategy,” she said. “He plotted everything in terms of how we were to interview, where we were to interview.”
In 1973, Miller’s father was taken to the hospital to be treated for a heart condition.
During his stay, the fact that he was the only survivor of a nine-member family that perished in the genocide hit home.
“Fortunately, he was well enough to come home,” she said. “And we began interviewing him immediately over several weeks to get his story from the beginning to the present.”
This prompted her to record more oral histories of survivors. Shortly after embarking on this career path, Miller enrolled in Hovannisian’s class, which refined her interviewing skills.
“His questionnaire included a lot of ethnographic information – very important to preserve the culture, to understand what life was like, what was the lifestyle of these people,” she said.
Often the latent trauma that many survivors had been living with for decades rose to the surface during the interviews. People in their 60s, 70s and 80s who’d been reluctant to talk became animated; anger would give way to sobs.
“I was surprised how many of them had never told their story to their children – none of it,” Miller said. “And so, many times when the children were there they were hearing the story for the first time.”
Most devastating to the women survivors were the stories of lost children. Some were kidnapped, others were given to Turkish families in hopes they’d have a better chance of survival. Others still were left behind because they’d encumber the larger family during the death marches through the desert.
“When you put (the interviews) all together, it’s in the collectivity of the testimony that you have the strength of it,” Hovannisian said. “The collectivity of it, where you feel the real horror and terror of what genocide is, and how extensive it can be – from one end of a country to the other – and how cruel it can be. Cruelty after cruelty after cruelty. And in many ways, genocide is a celebration of evil. The cruelty that people can inflict upon one another.”
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and House Select Committee on Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) both offered testimony in support of expanded aid to Armenia and Artsakh.
WASHINGTON—With a strong focus on the new opportunities for the growth of U.S.-Armenia relations in the wake of last year’s Velvet Revolution, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and House Select Committee on Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) each offered testimony to the U.S. House foreign aid panel in support of expanded assistance to both Armenia and Artsakh, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.
“We strongly support the foreign aid priorities advanced by Congressmen Schiff and Pallone and thank them both their leadership in working with key appropriators in support of a forward-leaning aid package for Artsakh and Armenia,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We look forward to continuing to engage with our friends across Capitol Hill throughout the appropriations process to support each of these priorities, and – more broadly – to leveraging U.S. aid policy in driving a strategic upgrade in U.S.-Armenia political, economic, and military relations.”
Congressman Pallone, the founding Co-Chairman of the Armenian Caucus, and Rep. Schiff, a Vice-Chairman of the bipartisan Caucus, identified the following five appropriations priorities in the Fiscal Year 2020 foreign aid bill:
Royce-Engel aid – to strengthen the cease-fire by deploying gunfire locators
In their testimony, both Congressman Pallone and Congressman Schiff called upon the Appropriations Subcommittee on State-Foreign Operations to appropriate funds to support media freedom, judicial independence, anti-corruption, and civil society programs. They also encouraged the panel to zero-out U.S. military aid to Azerbaijan “until its government ceases its attacks against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh and agrees to the peaceful resolution of regional conflicts.
ANCA Government Affairs Director Raffi Karakashian will also be providing testimony on the ANCA’s FY2020 foreign aid priorities before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations on Tuesday, March 12th. Karakashian’s testimony will be streamed on the ANCA’s Facebook page at approximately 12:15pm.
The full text of both testimonies is provided below.
Testimony Of Rep. Frank Pallone
Chairwoman Lowey, Ranking Member Rogers, Members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify. Now more than ever, American interests are at stake as we confront unprecedented instability and growing humanitarian crises around the world. Congress must invest in our national security, which includes development and diplomacy programs, alongside strong defense.
While I will extend and expand on my requests to the subcommittee, today I want to highlight two matters that I hope the subcommittee will prioritize in the FY20 bill – support for Armenia and the people of Nagorno-Karabakh; and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) formerly known as the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the civilian arm of U.S. international media.
Nagorno Karabakh
I have always been a strong proponent of support for Armenia. I have also been unwavering in my support for the right of self-determination of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsakh.
The continued instances of violence against the people of Artsakh call for specific steps to defuse tension and violence along the border, and humanitarian assistance to the people of Artsakh who simply want to live free of fear and violence, and exercise their right of self-determination.
I urge the Subcommittee to:
Support for Armenia’s Independence and Democracy
The U.S.-Armenia relationship is founded upon a shared commitment to freedom and democratic values. Armenia provides a safe haven for refugees, participates in U.S. led peacekeeping deployments, and supports the peaceful resolution of regional disputes. Blockaded by Azerbaijan and Turkey, Armenia confronts serious challenges to its security and its sovereignty. U.S. economic and military assistance plays a vital role in strengthening Armenia’s independence. Military aid enables Armenia’s membership in NATO’s Partnerships for Peace and supports Armenia’s participation in peacekeeping operations.
The peaceful transition of government in 2018 and successful democratic elections provide an opportunity for the United States to support meaningful long-term governance reforms as an adjunct to our commitment to Armenia’s aid-to-trade transition. Increased funding for technical assistance on governance-related priorities, including rule of law reforms, anti-corruption initiatives, support for civil society and independent journalism should be prioritized. I urge encouraging the Administration to maximize the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council meetings and to strategically broaden the U.S.-Armenia Economic Task Force to include support for governance reforms. I also support movement on a modern Double Tax Treaty, Social Security Totalization Agreement, debt-for-reforestation swaps, and non-stop U.S. to Armenia commercial flights, all of which would be to the benefit of both Armenia and the United States.
I urge the Subcommittee to support Armenia by:
Regional Safe Haven for Middle East Refugees
Over 25,000 individuals from Syria have sought safety in Armenia, which, despite being a small country, has received only modest levels of U.S. and international relief and resettlement assistance to accommodate this influx of refugees. Armenia has demonstrated its willingness to play a larger role as a regional safe haven for those fleeing persecution and death in the Middle East, but lacks the financial resources to offer the transition assistance needed by families fleeing violence.
I request the Subcommittee:
Thank you for providing me the opportunity to testify before your Subcommittee. As co-chair of the Congressional Armenian Caucus, I believe the Fiscal Year 2020 House budget should reflect an unwavering commitment to democracy building and trade relations with the Republic of Armenia and to promoting peace in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).
In the last year, we have seen an incredible grassroots movement take hold in Armenia. The Armenian people have proved their commitment to democracy, anti-corruption measures, and rule of law during the nonviolent “Velvet Revolution” starting in April 2018. That revolution culminated this past December with one of the freest, fairest and most open national elections in the country’s history. The elections led to the elevation of the movement’s leader, Nikol Pashinyan, to Prime Minister and to the election of one of the youngest and most reform-minded legislatures Armenia has ever had.
Armenia’s newly-elected government has indicated its intentions to bolster civil society and democratic institutions. The United States Congress can aid this process by ensuring targeted assistance is given during this exciting transition. This is especially true with concern to the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, which has been generous in its support of Armenian and Artsakh in previous Congresses. We are in a critical moment in which a meaningful increase in FY20 technical assistance to Armenia on important priorities – including for media freedom, judicial independence, anti-c01Tuption, and civil society purposes – will likely have an exponential positive impact on the country’s budding democratic institutions. I ask that the Subcommittee appropriate the specific funds it deems necessary to the Department of State’s Office of the Coordinator of U.S. Assistance to Eurnpe and Eurasia and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Europe and Eurasia for these pmposes.
As Armenia is an important safe haven for refugees and a strategic American partner, aid from the U.S. has also provided critical support for peacekeeping deployments and NATO interoperability in the region. The FY20 appropriations bill should include $30 million in economic aid and $10 million in military aid for Armenia, including funds for the Foreign Military Financing program and the International Military Education and Training program. I ask that Armenia also receive at least $20 million to help the country provide transition support to refugees from Syria and throughout the Middle East who have found safe haven there.
The Subcommittee’s tradition of generosity towards Artsakh also includes aid that has helped to provide maternal health care, support a multi-year HALO Trust land mine and unexploded ordnance clearance efforts, rehabilitation centers, and funds for badly needed water systems in Nagorno Karabakh. The FY20 appropriations bill should include $6 million to strengthen these critical programs and complete the work of HALO Trust in that area.
Additionally, intimidation and violence against the Armenian people continues today, in part because of continued U.S. military assistance to the Azerbaijani government. While much of the violence we saw in the spring of2016 has subsided, Azerbaijan continues to launch cross-border attacks into Artsakh and Armenia. Rather than• agreeing to a peaceful resolution of the conflict, President Aliyev of Azerbaijan has continued to offer threats of a renewed war between the two countries. The U.S. should suspend military aid to Azerbaijan until its government ceases its attacks against Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh and agrees to the peaceful resolution of regional conflicts.
For this reason, this year’s bill should also continue to invest in peace by providing the OSCE Minsk Group with $4 million, allowing for the placement of advanced gunfire locator systems and sound-ranging equipment to determine the source of attacks along the line of contact.
Taking these steps will continue to build on the U.S.-Armenia strategic relationship and help to grow the seeds of pro-democratic and civil society institutions in Armenia. I urge the Subcommittee to invest in peace and assist Armenia at this exciting time of continued development.
Testimony of Rep. Adam Schiff
Chairwoman Lowey, Ranking Member Rogers, Members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify. Now more than ever, American interests are at stake as we confront unprecedented instability and growing humanitarian crises around the world. Congress must invest in our national security, which includes development and diplomacy programs, alongside strong defense.
While I will extend and expand on my requests to the subcommittee, today I want to highlight two matters that I hope the subcommittee will prioritize in the FY20 bill – support for Armenia and the people of Nagorno-Karabakh; and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) formerly known as the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the civilian arm of U.S. international media.
Nagorno Karabakh
I have always been a strong proponent of support for Armenia. I have also been unwavering in my support for the right of self-determination of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsakh.
The continued instances of violence against the people of Artsakh call for specific steps to defuse tension and violence along the border, and humanitarian assistance to the people of Artsakh who simply want to live free of fear and violence, and exercise their right of self-determination.
I urge the Subcommittee to:
Support for Armenia’s Independence and Democracy
The U.S.-Armenia relationship is founded upon a shared commitment to freedom and democratic values. Armenia provides a safe haven for refugees, participates in U.S. led peacekeeping deployments, and supports the peaceful resolution of regional disputes. Blockaded by Azerbaijan and Turkey, Armenia confronts serious challenges to its security and its sovereignty. U.S. economic and military assistance plays a vital role in strengthening Armenia’s independence. Military aid enables Armenia’s membership in NATO’s Partnerships for Peace and supports Armenia’s participation in peacekeeping operations.
The peaceful transition of government in 2018 and successful democratic elections provide an opportunity for the United States to support meaningful long-term governance reforms as an adjunct to our commitment to Armenia’s aid-to-trade transition. Increased funding for technical assistance on governance-related priorities, including rule of law reforms, anti-corruption initiatives, support for civil society and independent journalism should be prioritized. I urge encouraging the Administration to maximize the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council meetings and to strategically broaden the U.S.-Armenia Economic Task Force to include support for governance reforms. I also support movement on a modern Double Tax Treaty, Social Security Totalization Agreement, debt-for-reforestation swaps, and non-stop U.S. to Armenia commercial flights, all of which would be to the benefit of both Armenia and the United States.
I urge the Subcommittee to support Armenia by:
Regional Safe Haven for Middle East Refugees
Over 25,000 individuals from Syria have sought safety in Armenia, which, despite being a small country, has received only modest levels of U.S. and international relief and resettlement assistance to accommodate this influx of refugees. Armenia has demonstrated its willingness to play a larger role as a regional safe haven for those fleeing persecution and death in the Middle East, but lacks the financial resources to offer the transition assistance needed by families fleeing violence.
I request the Subcommittee: