Author: Meline Chalian

By Harut Sassounian
The California Courier

An unknown assailant threw a Molotov cocktail at the Armenian Consulate in Glendale, California, on August 10, an informed source who wished to remain anonymous told The California Courier.

Surveillance video cameras at the Consulate recorded a car stopping next to the Consulate building around 3 am. A passenger got out of the car and threw a bottle filled with flammable liquid after lighting it. The tossed object left burn marks on a small section of the outside wall of the building and scorched the branches of a nearby tree.

Glendale Police arrived at the Consulate moments after the assailants had fled the scene of the crime.

Both the Glendale Police Department and the U.S. State Department’s Security Office are vigorously investigating the attempted arson.

This is the first time that an Armenian diplomatic building has come under attack in the United States, and probably anywhere else in the world.

A Spokeswoman for the Glendale Police Department told The California Courier that she cannot make any comments as the incident is under ongoing investigation.

The “Days of Armenian Culture” festival is to be held in Belarus in 2016 as part of a cooperation agreement between the Belarusian and Armenian culture ministries, the Calvert Journal reports.

The festival took place in Armenia in 2014 under the same agreement, which will be in effect until the end of 2017.

According to a statement published on the national Belarusian legal portal, the countries will also work together to facilitate exchanges between theatre, music and dance groups in Belarus and Armenia, and an exchange of artists in opera and ballet productions. In addition, the agreement incorporates film festivals celebrating the cinema of the partner country.

“Each party will promote direct contact between museums in their countries, and also take steps towards organising exhibitions from the collections of the two countries in Belarus and Armenia,” the statement reads.

There are plans to exhibit the works of Armenian artist Arevik Petrosyan in Belarus later this year, while the Armenian Culture Ministry will organise an exhibition of the work of Belarusian folk artist Mikhail Savitsky and Belarusian artists from the School of Paris.

Russian businessman German Sterligov does not plan to cut ties with Nagorno Karabakh and intends to return there from time to time.

“The fact that we have returned to the Motherland, does not mean we’ll not go back to Nagorno Karabakh. It’s sort of native home to us now,” Sterligov told Interfax agency.

The businessman said he has got a small farm in Nagorno Karbakah, which his local friends will look after.

“We now have a small farm, we have a mill and grind flour there. Besides, I have a partner there, a local guy,” he said.

“Therefore, nothing is cancelled. My elder sons will look after the farm and I’ll visit there from time to time,” he added.

Last week the businessman returned from Karabakh, where spent a couple of months. Upon his arrival in Moscw, Sterligov was detained at Domodedovo Airport, but was released after a two-hour talk.

The Azerbaijani authorities blame the Russian businessman of launching ‘illegal’ activity in Nagorno Karabakh.

 

 

 

“The motives behind the Armenian Genocide were primarily economic, not religious. The material loss caused to Armenians as a result of the Genocide was four times larger than Turkey’s foreign debt at the time,” lawyer, political scientist Izabella Muradyan says. He research of Turkey’s legal documents reveals facts that often skip the attention of historians.

When planning the mass killing of Armenians in 1915, the Young Turk Government first announced Jihad. All Armenian living on the territory of Turkey were announced enemies and according to the Sunni law, the first one to kill the enemy would receive the latter’s wealth. Five percent of the Armenian property was thus to be transferred to the budget of the Young Turks, the rest would go to the murderer. Izabella Muradyan believes that with this very law the authorities involved a great number of Muslims in the mass killing of Armenians.

After the massacre, Turkey adopted a law, making it legal to seize the property of Armenians. It applied to both movable property and real estate, and the bank accounts.

“Turkey’s alley Germany simply copied some of the laws later and applied it against Jews,” the lawyer says. She’s assured that the main motive behind the Armenian Genocide was economic, not religious. She reminded the 1915 massacre of Hamshen Armenians, who had been following Islam since the 16^th century.

The bankrupt Ottoman Empire stole the property of Armenians, but the land and its bowels where the most precious. “If we look closely at the geologic map, we’ll see that the first killings took place in areas rich in natural resources,” Muradyan says.

The lawyer is assured, that the Armenian Genocide has not been fully recognized and condemned not only because of Turkey’s ‘denialism’, but also due to the economic interests of the superpowers. “Turkey’s foreign partners have accumulated huge wealth on the areas previously belonging to Armenians, and refusing from it would be very difficult.”

Researcher at Matenadaran Institute Anahit Astoyan says the burden of plunder of the Armenian property lies not only with the Young Turks, but also the Kemalists, i.e. the modern-day Turkey. “By exterminating the Western Armenians the Young Turks and Kemalists got rid of a powerful competitor from the economic arena and created a huge capital by appropriating their property.

According to her, even some Turkish historians declare today that the economy of modern-day Turkey is almost completely based on the property grabbed from Armenians.

Despite the severe war conditions, the Ottoman budget had an unprecedented rise between 1914 and 1918. According to the data of the British intelligence, the Turkish authorities used the Armenian funds to cover the huge war expenses and pay off a considerable part of the foreign debt. The Kemalist Movement, which resulted in the creation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, also succeeded thanks to the Armenian wealth. “Therefore, the Turkish Republic cannot escape material responsibility,” Astoyan concludes.

President Serzh Sargsyan met with the guests and participants of the Golden Apricot 12th International Film Festival.

The President welcomed their participation in the traditional annual Golden Apricot Film Festival, which helps present the best samples of world cinematography to the Armenian audience.

President Sargsyan also emphasized the fact that every year outstanding representatives of world cinematography, who arrive in Yerevan within the framework of the Festival, get to know about Armenia, the Armenian people, its centuries-long history and rich cultural heritage.

Serzh Sargsyan wished success to the Golden Apricot 12th International Film Festival.

All four Armenian teams won the first matches in Euro Cups.

Pyunik FC defeated San Marino’s Folgore 2:1 in the opening Champions League match.

Pyunik recorded their first UEFA Champions League victory since July 2007.

The Armenian side led through Vardges Satumyan and substitute Cesar Romero, but Hirsch’s header, seconds after team-mate Fabio Ceschi had been dismissed, has given the Sammarinese outfit hope of winning a UEFA tie for the first time.

Gyumri’s Shirak defeated Zrinjski (Bosnia & Herzegovina) 2:0.

Alashkert used their home-field advantage to knock off favourites St Johnstone 1-0 in Armenia.

Mihran Manasyan scored in the 55th minute for the hosts, who will travel to Perth for the second leg on July 9.

Yerevan’s Ulysses played a 0-0 draw with Birkirkara in an away match in Malta.

Senior ministry and agency officials of the Russia-led military alliance of former Soviet states CSTO on Friday discussed plans to establish a crisis response center to help member states deal with major security threats, a spokesman for the organisation said on Friday, TASS reports.

“Experts from CSTO ministries and agencies concerned discussed approaches to establishing the crisis response center and considered relevant draft statutes and regulations for information exchange,” the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s spokesman, Vladimir Zainetdinov, told TASS after discussions at the CSTO Secretariat.

He said that the new center would be based at an information technology complex for software and hardware development, which is currently being equipped in one of the Russian Defense Ministry’s military towns in Moscow.

Plans to set up the center were announced at a meeting of the organisation’s decision-making body, the Collective Security Council, in January.

Armenia is building a multi-vector security system, taking into consideration the existing challenges, Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan said at NATO’s Rose Roth seminar in Yerevan.

Besides the traditional threats, the Minister pointed to the rapidly aggravating challenges, such as trans-national terrorism and radicalism, which is “knocking the door of the South Caucasus.”

“In a short period of time the so-called Islamic State managed to expand the area under its control and continues to stretch in different directions,  automatically challenging the South Caucasus, as two of the latter’s neighbors – Turkey and Iran – are in some way involved in the developments around ISIS,” the Defense Minister said.

“Being a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, Armenia actively cooperates with NATO and its member states and views the relations with NATO as an indispensible part of its security system,” Minister Ohanyan said.

The Defense Minister noted that “Armenia is the only CSTO member state and the only strategic ally of Russia, which has been actively involved in NATO-led peacekeeping missions.

Speaking about NATO’s role in ensuring security in the region, Minister Ohanyan said “being the guarantor of security in the Euro-Atlantic area, NATO should play a distinct role in defending the South Caucasus from outer challenges and support the negotiations on conflict settlement in different formats.”

“NATO’s involvement in the region should be targeted against challenges  common for all countries of the region, irrespective of the collective security systems they have chosen to join,” he added.

 

Dick Costolo is stepping down as chief executive of Twitter, the company has announced, the BBC reports.

The social messaging service’s co-founder Jack Dorsey will take over as interim chief on 1 July and stay until a replacement can be found.

Mr Costolo had been under pressure from investors unhappy with the firm’s user growth.

In a statement, he said he was “tremendously proud of the Twitter team”.

Twitter said that its board had formed a committee to undertake the task of finding a successor.

A Malaysia Airlines passenger plane has made an emergency landing in Melbourne, Australia after reporting a possible engine fire, the BBC reports.

Flight MH148 had just taken off from Melbourne for the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Plane tracking sites showed the Airbus 330 circling Melbourne airport several times before turning back.

Fire engines were on site but airport officials said it landed safely at 15:00 local time (05:00 GMT).

A spokeswoman for Airservices Australia, the government’s aviation safety body, said the plane had reported an “engine fire” alert in the cabin.

“The plane proceeded to dump the fuel and returned to land and it landed safely at the aviation rescue sites,” she told Reuters news agency. Officials said this was standard procedure for an emergency landing.