Author: Hovik Karapetian

The Chamber of Deputies of Chile issued a historic passed unanimously that condemns the “armed attack of Azerbaijan to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic” on Wednesday 18 May, reports.

The resolution, introduced by DeputiesGustavo Hasbun Selume, Issa Kort Garriga, Denise Pascal Allende, Aldo Cornejo Gonzalez and Jorge Sabag Villalobos, sets a crucial precedent, since it is the first in South America that condemns the attacks of Azerbaijan and also call Nagorno-Karabakh a Republic.

The Chilean Chamber of Deputies “reaffirms its commitment to peace and urges the Republic of Azerbaijan for the immediate cessation of all acts of war against the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and the strict observance of the truce signed by both countries in 1994” and “requests the Government of Chile to urge the parties to circumscribe the conflict settlement within the framework of the negotiations held in the Minsk Group, and thus avoiding a regional explosion with unpredictable consequences.”

“What Azerbaijan is doing undoubtedly marks a break not only of bilateral and international relations, but a permanent violation to the world peace and has to be condemned by the world, the citizenship and especially the countries like ours, that feel some degree of brotherhood with Armenia,” said Deputy Gustavo Hasbun Zelume, President of the Armenian-Chilean Group of Friendship and the one who presented the project, in an interview with Prensa Armenia agency. “This will allow Chile to take a more active role in defending the sovereignty of individual countries.”

The deputy admitted that they received pressures from Naciye Gökçen Kaya, Ambassador of Turkey in Chile, so that this resolution could not be approved, like the one last year, in which the Chamber of Deputies of Chile sympathized “with the Armenian nation condemning the genocide of its people that began in 1915.”

“The Chamber of Deputies is autonomous and will not allow pressures from any country to come and say how we as parliamentarians have to act in defense of justice, peace, human rights and in defense of people being oppressed,” added Hasbun Zelume.

“We welcome the courageous position of Chilean Deputies, who unanimously broke with the prevailing hypocrisy of not naming the aggressor in the conflict. We hope that this statement, in line with the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OEA), Luis Almagro, on last 3 April, will mark a path for the countries of the region,” said Alfonso Tabakian, Director of the Armenian National Committe of South America.

The grounds for the decision say that “on the night of 1 to 2 of last April, ground forces and air of the Republic of Azerbaijan conducted a large-scale attack on the border with the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, with heavy artillery and last generation missiles” and that aggression represented “the most flagrant violation of the Ceasefire Agreement signed by both countries in May 1994 and a breach of UN rules on Pacific Settlement of Disputes.”

“Faced with this new escalation of violence that has already claimed numerous civilian and military casualties victims, Chile condemns the aggression, calls for the cessation of military operations and the continuation of the peace negotiations within the framework of the Minsk Group, whose co-presidents are the United States, Russia and France, sponsored by the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).”

The City Council of the Italian city of Canosa unanimously recognized the Armenian Genocide on May 16.

Another Spanish city – Civita Castellana- had also recognized the Armenian Genocide on April 30.

The Genocide has been recognized by 107 councils on regional and municipal level in Italy.

Connecting U.S. businesses to the Armenian market is a win-win proposition. Businesses are always looking for investment opportunities, and bringing more companies to Armenia diversifies and strengthens the nation’s economy.

To facilitate these new connections, the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia, the Armenian Ministry of Economy, and Converse Bank, organized a one-day business conference focused on investment opportunities in Armenia for U.S. businesses. The event was held on May 18 in Yerevan.

“One of my priorities, as Ambassador, is to further developing our bi-lateral economic ties,” said U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills, Jr., who opened the conference alongside Armenian Minister of Economy Artsvik Minasyan. “The Embassy and our colleagues at the Ministry of Economy are working to strengthen our joint commercial ties to the benefit of both our nations’ economies.”

“Reliable partners are critical for building durable and lasting business ties, for implementation of mutually beneficial projects and for making long-term investments. Events like this are a serious boost for further strengthening of economic cooperation, identifying new opportunities for businesses and opening up new markets,” said Minister Minasyan. “I am convinced that this new round for development of Armenian-American relations will encourage closer and more effective cooperation between Armenian and American business communities and facilitate establishment of mutually beneficial business ties and identifying new areas of partnership.”
Attending the conference were many Armenian business leaders as well as executives from a dozen U.S. firms, which are successful in the region and looking at investing in Armenia. The conference was an opportunity for U.S. businesses to hear from experts and financial institutions about the investment outlook in Armenia. Armenian governmental leaders shared the nation’s economic development priorities. The day was also an opportunity for Armenian businesses to discuss future partnerships and deals with their U.S. counterparts.

“We know Armenian businesspeople are great deal makers and are always looking for ways to bring new products and services to the Armenian market and to find new outlets for Armenian-made products and services,” Ambassador Mills said. “By connecting Armenian businesses with some great U.S. companies, we hope to see an even larger growth of our bilateral trade. This is what the Armenian people need — the resources and connections to develop their economy.”

A dozen U.S. corporations, representing the IT, engineering, energy, consumer goods sectors, manufacturing and chemical industry, sent representatives to Yerevan for the conference, allowing Armenian business leaders access to well-known U.S. companies eager to enter and expand in the Armenian market.
The one-day program featured presentations by the Ministry of Economy and other Armenian Government officials, the Central Bank of Armenia, Armenia’s stock exchange, EBRD, IMF and the Asian Development Bank.
The event was conducted as a follow up to the first meeting of the U.S.-Armenia Council on Trade and Investment held in Yerevan in November 2015. The council was established after the two countries signed the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in May 2015.

Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan has signed a decree on the 2016 summer draft and demobilization, NKR President’s Press Office reports.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic will leave Paris St-Germain at the end of the season, the BBC reports.

The 34-year-old Sweden striker’s contract with the French champions expires in the summer, and he has been linked with Manchester United, Los Angeles Galaxy and AC Milan.

“I am very proud,” he said. “I came like a king, I leave like a legend but I will be back.”

PSG said Ibrahimovic leaves as “the greatest striker and one of the very best players in the club’s history”.

Ibrahimovic is the club’s record goalscorer despite only joining the club in 2012, his 152 goals coming in 178 appearances.

By James Estrin

– Human rights lawyer Amal Clooney’s April 26 remarks to the have hit a raw nerve in Azerbaijan, the ex-Soviet petrocracy where her client, investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova, is kept prisoner.

After Clooney described the political reasons for Ismayilova’s arrests, the Azerbaijani government apparently did what it always does when pressed on its human rights record —  claimed a global Armenian conspiracy.

No matter if Clooney’s case at the European Court for Human Rights involves an Azerbaijani journalist’s struggle against the Azerbaijan state.  Azerbaijan’s state propaganda will find an Armenian connection even if there is none.

“Turns out that Armenia indeed has a weapon that we could not even dream of… the ‘deadly weapon’ that Armenia is using against Azerbaijan is the quite well-known, failure-of-a-lawyer Amal Clooney, née Alamuddin,” Day.az  sniped.

The smear campaign, waged loyally by Azerbaijan’s predominantly pro-government mainstream media, comes shortly after Azerbaijan and longtime archenemy Armenia fought a brief, so-called four-day war earlier this month. The seemingly endless feud between the two neighbors began after a bloody war in the late 1980s and early 1990s over separatist Nagorno-Karabakh, which resulted in the eviction of the enclave’s entire ethnic Azeri population.

For that reason, in Baku’s thinking, Clooney’s past role as a legal advocate for the Armenian government before the European Court of Human Rights make her highly suspect. Her support, and that of husband George Clooney, for recognition of Ottoman Turkey’s slaughter of ethnic Armenians as genocide only add to the suspicions. Turkey ranks as Azerbaijan’s closest ally.

When Clooney said she was taking up Ismayilova’s case, Azerbaijani media claimed that the British lawyer was of Armenian descent. Clooney, who scoffed at the charges, is, in fact, of Lebanese extraction, but Lebanon houses a large Armenian Diaspora. So, for Baku, it all comes together.

“The Armenian diaspora must have some sort of trick prepared to use that good-for-nothing lawyer,” opined Rizvan Huseynov, a researcher with Azerbaijan’s National Academy of Science.

Azerbaijan’s pro-government media seemed particularly incensed with Clooney’s recent attempt to rally support for Ismayilova’s case in Washington. Clooney told the BBC that she believes international pressure can help free the journalist, who has been serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence since late 2015 for alleged abuse of power, tax evasion, illegal business activity and embezzlement.

“We know that diplomatic pressure can work on the [Azerbaijani] government because what we had happened in the last month,” Clooney said, referring to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s pardon of internationally recognized political prisoners ahead of a visit to Washington in late March.

In fact, Aliyev releases prisoners each year before Novruz, the traditional Zorastrian New Year celebrated in Azerbaijan, but the comment hit its mark.

Researcher Huseynov wrote in the pro-Aliyev News.az website that the Armenians paid Clooney to go to Washington and set the White House and Capitol Hill against Azerbaijan.

How far Azerbaijan’s pro-government hacks will go with this theme of an  international Armenian conspiracy remains to be seen, but crossover PR tactics from the Karabakh fight should be expected.

Last week, Thomas Jefferson School of Law hosted a lecture entitled, “Genocide and the Law 101 Years Later.” The event was organized by the Thomas Jefferson School of Law Armenian Law Student Association, according to PRLeap.com.

The lecture featured famed Armenian American criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos, who had represented several celebrities and was one of the lead lawyers in a pair of groundbreaking federal class-action lawsuits against New York Life Insurance and AXA Corporation for insurance policies issued in the early 20th century during the Armenian Genocide.

Geragos was introduced by United States District Court Judge and Armenian American Larry Alan Burns, who was the keynote speaker at last year’s commemoration event.

“Thomas Jefferson School of Law continues to be a strong supporter of its Armenian Law Students Association and its events,” said Armenian Law Student Association Faculty Advisor and Thomas Jefferson School of Law Associate Professor Christopher Guzelian. “I was pleased to see prominent members of the local Armenian community, including three state and federal judges, in attendance. Mr. Geragos gave a dynamic, informative speech about his successful legal efforts to compel American life insurance companies to fulfill their century-old unpaid commitment to insured Armenian Genocide victims.”

Concluding remarks were made by Armenian Law Student Association President Meline Grigoryan who also introduced Judge Burns at the beginning of the program. Grigoryan explained that every year on April 24th Armenians around the world unite in one voice to remember and demand justice for the 1.5 million lives lost. Grigoryan emphasized that “by recognizing the past, future crimes against humanity can be defeated and prevented,” one of the themes of the lecture by Geragos.

The event was attended by many Thomas Jefferson School of Law students, faculty and staff, showing great interest in the Armenian cause.

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today issued the following statement after the Administration failed to call the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Turkish government a genocide:

“As we mark the 101st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24, I call on the Administration to recognize the murder of 1.5 million Armenians from 1915-1923 by Ottoman Turkey for what it was: genocide. Recognition of past genocides is crucial for preventing future genocides, so it is long past due to speak honestly about what happened to the Armenians.”

George Clooney has arrived in Armenia. In the evening of April 24, Armenian Genocide Memorial Day, Aurora Prize Selection Committee Co-Chair, George Clooney, will present the $100,000 grant to the inaugural Aurora Prize Laureate.

The Laureate will then invite his or her nominated organization(s) to the stage to receive the $1 million award.

On behalf of the survivors of the Armenian Genocide, and in gratitude to their saviors, the Aurora Prize celebrates the strength of the human spirit that compels action is the face of adversity.

The Aurora Prize will be awarded annually on April 24 of each year in Yerevan, Armenia.