Author: Parkev Tvankchian

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has welcomed a US-Russia agreement over a truce deal in Syria and urged all sides to stick to the peace deal to reportedly take effect on February 27.

The cessation of hostilities is meant to be “a first step towards a more durable ceasefire,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Monday about the agreement, which is meant to take effect on February 27.

“The Secretary-General strongly urges the parties to abide by the terms of the agreement,” he said.

Ban said the truce that was announced Monday “contributes to creating an environment conducive for the resumption of political negotiations,” which had been scheduled to resume this week.

Friends of Armenia will travel to Washington, DC from across America on March 15th for a two-day Capitol Hill advocacy campaign promoting peace, prosperity, and justice for the Armenian nation, organized by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

“We look forward to building upon the success of December’s fly-in with a renewed grassroots drive this spring challenging Azerbaijan’s aggression, removing barriers to the growth of U.S.-Armenia economic relations, and overriding Turkey’s veto against a principled American stand for a just resolution of the Armenian Genocide,” said Elen Asatryan, ANCA Western Region Executive Director and Armen Sahakyan of the ANCA Eastern Region.  “We encourage constituents from across America to join us, once again, in making our case to Congress.”

Friends and supporters of Armenia and Artsakh are invited to register on the ANCA website at  and work with ANCA Regional and Washington, D.C. staff to coordinate meetings with Senate and House offices to share core ANCA public policy priorities. Registration is free; participants are responsible for their travel and lodging.  The ANCA will host a reception in the Aramian Conference Room of its Washington, DC office on the evening of Tuesday, March 15th.

Among the key requests that advocates will deliver to legislators during the fly-in are the following:

Congressional leaders will be urged to help save lives, avert war and create the conditions for a fair and enduring peace by demanding the immediate implementation of the Royce-Engel proposals for Nagorno Karabakh: 1) The withdrawal of snipers and heavy arms, 2) the addition of OSCE observers, and 3) the deployment of gunfire locator systems.  The U.S. government, the OSCE and both Armenia and Artsakh have endorsed these proposals. Only Azerbaijan ‘s objections are preventing their implementation.

Member of Congress will be encouraged to help remove a major barrier to U.S.-Armenia business ties – the double taxation of U.S./Armenia profits – through the negotiation of a long overdue bilateral Tax Treaty.  This accord, building upon last year’s landmark U.S.-Armenia Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, would help create jobs, foster hope, and generate economic opportunity in both countries.  Legislators will also be asked to support continued U.S. assistance to Nagorno Karbakh, for de-mining of civilian areas and the urgently needed expansion of a regional rehabilitation center providing health care services to disabled children and adults from throughout the Caucasus area and beyond.

U.S. Senators and Representatives will be asked to support the adoption of S.Res.140 and H.Res.154, the Armenian Genocide Truth + Justice Resolution. H.Res.154, a reparations-oriented measure, goes beyond recognition, actively seeking to engage the full force of  United States  diplomacy in ending Turkey ‘s denial of both truth and justice for this still-unpunished crime against humanity.

Photo:  Studio Venus

Asbarez – On Friday, December 25 2015, in a festive atmosphere, families from Emmanuel, Bethel, Martyrs’ and Syriac churches gathered in Bethel Church to celebrate Christmas in the Church’s “Poladian” Hall.  The program started with welcoming words from Maria Boshgezenian as well as a greeting with a short message from Rev. Haroutune Selimian, President of the Armenian Evangelical Community in Syria.  “The New Year brings new hope to our lives, the hope that something will change for the better.  As the old year comes to an end and the New Year unfolds we will thus feel renewed with new hope and promises of something good and beautiful things to come” said Rev. Selimian.

The celebration reached its climax when Santa Claus arrived, and with the financial support of the Armenian Missionary Association of America (AMAA) distributed gifts of pajamas to family members.  At the conclusion of the event Sona Keosgherian, on behalf of the Armenian Evangelical Social Action Committee, thanked Rev. Selimian for his steadfast support to the Armenian Community in Syria.

The following day, Rev. Selimian, along with Pastor Simon Der Sahagian and some members of the Church visited the Armenian Old People’s Home at “Gulbenkian Hospital” in Nor Kyugh, Aleppo. Rev.  Selimian warmly greeted the residents of the home and with his encouraging words wished them a Blessed Christmas and a healthy and peaceful year.  With the financial support of the AMAA, gifts were distributed to the elderly.

The same day, Rev. Selimian along with a few members of the Church also visited the Armenian Orphanage in Nor Kyugh.  In attendance were the Board of Trustees of the Armenian Orphanage and the children of people martyred during the Syrian Civil war.  During the meeting, Rev. Selimian thanked the board members for their devoted service and care towards these orphans and distributed gifts which were made possible through the support of the AMAA.

A powerful 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the east of the Central Asian country of Tajikistan on Monday, US experts said, while the impoverished country’s government said no casualties were reported, AFP reports.

The tremor hit at 7:50 GMT some 109 kilometres (67 miles) west of the town of Murghob at a depth of 28 kilometres, the US Geological Survey said.

The epicentre was located in a remote area some 345 kilometres east of the capital Dushanbe, it added.

Tajikistan’s emergency situations committee told AFP there had been no reports of casualties and that a rescue team had been dispatched to assess possible damage to housing.

The Tajik seismological service reported that the epicentre of the quake was just 22 kilometres from the high altitude Lake Sarez.

Sarez, formed following an earthquake in 1911 and containing some 17 cubic kilometres of water, is considered a major threat to the region if its dams break as a result of seismic activity.

The quake was also felt in the capital of neighbouring Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to the north, northern parts of Afghanistan to the south as well as nearby Pakistan and India, but no damage was immediately reported.

Representatives of the Russian mission have completed the observation at polling stations in Armenia, Chairman of the Russian Central Electoral Commission Vladimir Churov has said.

The Russian observers have not registered any violations or incidents during the referendum on Constitutional changes, Churov said.

The voter turnout is  projected to stand at 40-45%, Chairman of the Russian CEC told RIA Novosti.

“All procedures are being observed… Everything is calm, we have not seen any violations,” Churov said.

The observers, however, noted some shortcomings in the organization of the referendum. For example, the lists were hung too high in one of the polling stations.

Besides, the Russian observers disliked the precinct in the village of Lermontovo stationed at a village club, while the polling station could be organized in a newly renovated school building.

On December 2, in accordance with the arrangement reached with the authorities of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, the OSCE Mission conducted a planned monitoring of the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Nagorno Karabakh and Azerbaijan in the Askeran direction.

From the positions of the NKR Defense Army, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistants of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Jiri Aberle (Czech Republic) and Yevgeny Sharov (Ukraine), as well as by Personal Assistant to the Personal Representative of the CiO Simon Tiller (Great Britain).

From the opposite side of the Line of Contact, the monitoring was conducted by Field Assistant of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Khristo Khristov (Bulgaria) and staff member of the Office Peter Svedberg (Sweden).

The monitoring passed in accordance with the agreed schedule. No violation of the cease-fire regime was registered.

From the Karabakh side, the monitoring mission was accompanied by representatives of the NKR Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Defense.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Dec. 1 that Turkey had violated conventions on freedom of expression when it banned YouTube for more than two years until late 2010, the

An Ankara court had barred access to the video-sharing site from May 2008 to October 2010 over 10 videos deemed insulting to modern Turkey’s founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Strasbourg-based rights tribunal said.

“Blocking without a legal basis users’ access to YouTube infringed the right to receive and impart information,” it said, ruling on a case brought by three Turkish law professors.

“The court also found that there was no provision in the law allowing the domestic courts to impose a blanket blocking order on access to the Internet, and in the present case to YouTube, on account of one of its contents.”

The lengthy ban on YouTube — and thousands of other websites — had prompted widespread concern about freedom of expression under then prime minister and now President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who critics say has become increasingly authoritarian.

Before the ban, YouTube had been the fifth most popular site in Turkey.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government also blocked Twitter and YouTube in March 2014 after they were used to spread a torrent of audio recordings implicating Erdoğan and his inner circle in the country’s largest graft probe.

The triggerman who shot dead Turkish-Armenian journalistHrant Dink almost nine years ago has appealed to present his testimony as part of the “criminal organization” leg of the case into the murder. The assassin Ogün Samast has also asked to be transferred to a prison in Istanbul near to where the case is being held, the reports.

Since he was sentenced by a juvenile court to 22 years in jail on July 2011, Samast has not attended any hearings at the Istanbul 5th Heavy Penal Court, where another case has been heard focusing on the “criminal organization” aspect of the killing.

In a letter dated Nov. 13, 2015, Samast told the court that he is now willing to give his testimony in the “criminal organization” leg of the case. He also asked to be transferred to a prison in Istanbul, from the high-security F-type prison in Kandıra, Kocaeli province, where he is currently been jailed.

Dink, who was the editor-in-chief of Agos, was shot dead outside its office building in Istanbul’s Şişli district on Jan. 19, 2007 by 17-year-old Samast.

In October 2014, the trial took a significant turn after the court in Istanbul overseeing the case announced that it would focus on allegations that the crime was hatched as part of a wider “criminal organization.” Lawyers representing the Dink family had demanded such a move since the start of the retrial.

In November 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that civil servants and institutions allegedly implicated in the murder should be investigated.

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier

Last week I spoke at the first conference on the Armenian Genocide in Israel, gave a lecture at the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem, and attended a meeting with Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin.

Pres. Rivlin was a staunch supporter of Armenian Genocide recognition while he was Chairman of the Knesset (parliament). As President, he is now more circumspect, not wishing to contradict his government’s reprehensible silence regarding the Armenian Genocide. However, during his meeting with the scholars attending the genocide conference last week, Pres. Rivlin left no doubt that his position on the Armenian Genocide has not changed. He even used the term “Armenian Genocide” during the meeting. He also recalled his speech at the UN General Assembly earlier this year in which he specifically referenced the Armenian Genocide.

I reminded Pres. Rivlin that over two dozen countries have already recognized the Armenian Genocide and that Israel should also acknowledge it simply because it is the right thing to do! I expressed the hope that with his continued support Israel would complete ‘the missing page’ of my book which lists the countries that have recognized the Armenian Genocide!

I then handed Pres. Rivlin my book, “The Armenian Genocide, The World Speaks Out: 1915-2015, Documents & Declarations,” a copy of the speech I delivered at the conference, and my newspaper, The California Courier.

The Armenian Genocide conference was organized By Prof. Yair Auron and the Department of Sociology, Political Science and Communication at The Open University of Israel. Among the distinguished speakers were: Jacob Metzer, President of The Open University of Israel; Prof. Yair Auron; Prof. Israel Charny; Prof. Elihu Richter; Prof. Dina Porat, Chief Historian of Yad Vashem; Dr. Stefan Ihrig, author of “Ataturk in the Nazi Imagination”; Ragip Zarakolu, a prominent human rights activist from Turkey; Prof. Ayhan Aktar from Istanbul Bilgi University; Ya’akov Ahimeir, Journalist and Editor of Israel Broadcasting Authority’s weekly international news survey on Channel 1; Benny Ziffer, Editor of the literary and cultural section of Haaretz newspaper; and George Hintlian from Jerusalem’s Armenian community.

In my conference presentation, I expressed regret that The State of Israel has yet to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. Here are excerpts from my remarks:

“I must first draw an important distinction between the position of the Israeli government and the people of Israel and Jews around the world who have been some of the leading voices calling attention to the Armenian Genocide and its recognition:

— Henry Morgenthau, U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, during the Genocide;

— Franz Werfel, the Austrian Jewish novelist, who wrote in 1933 the international bestselling novel, “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh.” His book was translated into Hebrew in 1934 and was widely read by Jews everywhere, particularly in the Warsaw ghetto, as a source of inspiration for survival and resistance to the Nazis during the Shoah;

— Raphael Lemkin, the Polish Jewish lawyer, who coined the term genocide. He disclosed during a 1949 interview on the CBS-TV Program Face the Nation: “I became interested in genocide because it happened to the Armenians”;

— I would add to these historical figures the name of Yossi Beilin, who spoke out on the Armenian Genocide as Israel’s Minister of Justice on April 24, 2000, and as Deputy Foreign Minister in 1994, despite heavy pressures and criticisms from the Israeli government;

— We also fondly remember Minister of Education Yossi Sarid who was the keynote speaker in Jerusalem on April 24, 2000, the 85th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. He declared: “I am here, with you, as a human being, as a Jew, as an Israeli, and as Education Minister of the State of Israel…. Whoever stands indifferent in front of it [genocide], or ignores it, whoever makes calculations, whoever is silent always helps the perpetrator of the crime and not the murdered.”

— I must include in this list of Righteous Jews, Professors Israel Charny, Yair Auron, Yehuda Bauer, Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, and a large number of Jewish scholars who were the trailblazers in writing articles and books on the Armenian Genocide, even before Armenian scholars.

— I must also commend Knesset members and former Knesset Chairman Reuven Rivlin — the current President of Israel — who staunchly supported Armenian Genocide recognition despite his government’s vehement opposition.

As it is well known, the Armenian Genocide was the ‘prototype’ of the Shoah in view of German complicity in the extermination of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. In the process of that criminal cooperation, the German military learned from its Turkish ally practical evil lessons on how to organize and implement the elimination of an entire race! Hitler was emboldened by the silence of the world while Armenians were getting wiped out, to confidently declare on the eve of his invasion of Poland in 1939, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

Consequently, The State of Israel should have been the first country, and hopefully not the last, to recognize the Armenian Genocide! Who should empathize more with the victims of a genocide than those who have suffered a similar fate?

Those who give Realpolitik reasons to justify Israel’s reluctance to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, should answer the following question: Would they accept the denial of the Shoah by another country, simply because it is in that country’s strategic interest to do so?

Equally illogical is the claim that now is not the right time to recognize the Armenian Genocide! When is a good time to recognize a genocide? Isn’t 100 years of waiting long enough?

Moreover, for years, we were told that acknowledging the Armenian Genocide would ruin Israel’s good relations with Turkey. Now, we are being told that Israel cannot acknowledge it in order not to make its bad relations with Turkey worse!

It would be immoral to exploit the recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a bargaining chip between Turkey and Israel. No political, economic or military interest should override the recognition of any genocide!

Israel should recognize the Armenian Genocide for one reason only: It is the right thing to do!”