Author: Raffi Khondkarian

“The conduct of the Seventh Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations in a country, where xenophobia, Armenophobia, intolerance are flourishing, raises a number of questions,” Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian told a joint press conference with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“The Alliance of Civilizations is called to support high civilizational universal values. Holding the forum in a country, where those values are violated, disrespected and ignored is unacceptable,” he said.

He said, Armenia has not only refused to attend the forum, but has also vetoed the Declaration of the Seventh Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations.

Armenia’s Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer Mihran Poghosyan has resigned. The Compulsory Enforcement Service has issued the following statement:

“My name has recently surfaced in the publications on Panama offshores.

I regret that my name appeared along with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s family, which has really appropriated millions of dollars.

I find it unacceptable that I might serve a reason for any civilizational parallels between my country and authoritarian Azerbaijan. That’s why I have filed my resignation today.

I’ll publicly respond to the publications of the Panama Papers without any state levers at my disposal.”

The search for bodies of those killed during clashes along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact continues with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Field Assistants of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office have also arrived at the scene.

The parties agreed a “period of silence” yesterday to recover the bodies of the dead.

After de-mining works, the ICRC and OSCE representatives approached the buffer zone.

No bodies of Armenians soldiers were found in the buffer zone, the search works continue.

Lusine Avanesyan
Public Radio of Armenia

Twenty Armenian soldiers were killed, 72 were wounded as a result of the clashes along the Nagorno Karabakh line of contact, Spokesman for the NKR Defense Ministry Senor Hasratyan told reporters in Stepanakert.

According to him, another 26 servicemen are missing. The Armenian side lost seven tanks. “Azerbaijan’s advancement has not exceeded 300 meters. At this point we have lost 5 military positions in the southern direction and 3 in the northern direction of the line of contact,” Hasratyan said.

As for the losses of the Azerbaijani side, Hasratyan noted that the rival lost 18 tanks, 2 helicopters, 6 infantry fighting vehicles, other military equipment. He said 300 Azeri servicemen were killed in clashes.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian attended the High-level meeting on global responsibility sharing through pathways for admission of Syrian refugees. The full text of Minister Nalbandian’s speech is provided below:

High Commissioner Grandi,
Dear colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Speaking at this venue I would like to pay tribute to the first High Commissioner for Refugees of the League of Nations Fridtjof Nansen whose name symbolized hope and salvation for countless refugees. His determination and commitment to tackle the plight of refugees stand as a true model of inspiration today when the world is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises of the last decades.

For years the war in Syria has ravaged the life of the Syrian people scattering hundreds of thousands of them throughout the region and beyond. Armenia has been among the first to strongly condemn the barbaric acts committed by “DAESH”, Al-Nusra and other terrorist groups, against ethnic and religious minorities, including our fellow Armenians and their cultural and religious heritage, which has for centuries defined the region’s multicultural and multiethnic mosaic. Last year here at the Human Rights Council, we characterized them as “crimes against civilization”.

There is a sad symbolism for Armenians in taking refuge from the very places which have sheltered them hundred years ago. Nansen and many other humanists helped the survivors of the Armenian Genocide to overcome the horrors of massacres and displacement. Today, about 20.000 refugees from Syria sought protection in Armenia, on per capita basis making our country as the third largest recipient of Syrian refugees in Europe. This is a considerable number for a country of just 3 million, which in the recent past has already sheltered hundreds of thousands fleeing from Azerbaijan. Thus, we know what it means to be a refugee and to host considerable number of refugees and we certainly join this discussion with strong sense of solidarity and responsibility.

Our own experience tells us that the humanitarian situations of this magnitude require synergy of efforts and cannot be addressed by any one state alone. This is true for every refugee-hosting country, but probably more so for a country with limited resources. We would like to draw the attention of the international donor community that the commitment to assist countries sheltering refugees should not be conditioned only by their geographic location, but rather should be based on the principle of more equitable responsibility sharing, without any distinction, in the spirit of international protection regime for refugees.

Armenia will certainly continue to make its utmost to take care of the Syrians who have found refuge in our country. We will appreciate the assistance to Armenia to address the urgent humanitarian needs of refugees from Syria and pave avenues towards local integration. To that end the Armenian Government has made relevant legislative changes facilitating the entry into the country, obtaining of the residency permit or citizenship, developing of the businesses, getting necessary medical assistance and emergency help free of charge, providing scholarships at the Universities to name but a few.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We believe that the plight of refugees and the humanitarian response in addressing challenges associated with unprecedented numbers of displaced people should by no means become subject to political trade-offs and manipulations.

Refugee crises confront societies with many questions at the same time. Not only in terms of security, but also with regard to the long-term effects of refugee settlement, employment, education and integration. As it was told in the film, we watched at the opening of this high level meeting: the refugees have right for the brighter future. Fridtjof Nansen believed that “the refugees who were regarded as an intolerable burden would comprise a rich asset”. The same conviction was expressed by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today in his opening speech. Indeed, the histories of many of our countries confirm the accuracy of these words.

Thank you.

The Azerbaijani side deliberately aggravates the situation at the line of contact, the NKR Defense Ministry said in a statement today.

The rival used artillery weapons of different caliber as it fired more than 850 shots in the direction of the Armenian positions on March 8 and 9.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army gave a worthy response and confidently continued with their military duty all along the line of contact, the Ministry said.

“Ignoring the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ calls to implement confidence-building measures, the Azerbaijani side not only continues to deliberately aggravate the situation at the line of contact, but also disseminates misinformation, accusing the Armenian forces of opening fire at the civilian population,” the statement reads.

The NKR Defense Ministry declared that it respects the peaceful population of Azerbaijan, which has been forced to bear the heavy burden of the Aliyev regime in the course of 20 years.

The Georgia State Senate has passed S.R.991,  resolution marking April 2016 as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month, the Armenian Assembly of America reports.

The full text of the resolution is provided below: 

1 Recognizing the month of April, 2016, as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month at the

2 Capitol; and for other purposes.

3 WHEREAS, the goal of Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month is to educate the public

4 about the history of previous and contemporary genocides; how to advocate against future

5 genocides; to focus attention on the specter of genocide so that policies, strategies, and

6 programs geared toward combating the evils of genocide can be developed; and to

7 commemorate the victims of genocide; and

8 WHEREAS, during World War II, a Polish lawyer of Jewish decent, Raphael Lemkin,

9 coined the term “genocide” to describe the coordinated plan of actions aimed at the

10 destruction of essential foundations of the life of certain groups with the aim of annihilating

11 a group itself by disintegrating a group’s social institutions, culture, language, national or

12 ethnic identities, religion, and economic existence while also destroying the personal

13 security, liberty, health, and dignity, as well as the lives, of individuals belonging to the

14 group; and

15 WHEREAS, throughout history, numerous genocides originated or stemmed from events that

16 occurred in April, and as a result, many institutions around the world have designated April

17 to be a month of genocide prevention and awareness; and

18 WHEREAS, when coining the term “genocide,” Raphael Lemkin was moved to investigate

19 the forced assimilation, deportation, and near eradication of the Armenian population and

20 other Christian communities, beginning in April, 1915, prompting Adolf Hitler to remark in

21 1939, “Who after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”; and

22 WHEREAS, in April of 1933, the Nazis issued a decree preparing the way for the “Final

23 Solution” defining non-Aryans as “anyone descended from non-Aryan, especially Jewish,

24 parents or grandparents”; and

25 WHEREAS, in 1975, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia, conducting

26 widespread killings of people belonging to specific groups, as well as an involuntary

27 relocation of all city dwellers to the countryside for forced labor in squalid conditions,

28 resulting in famine and starvation which turned the countryside into killing fields; these acts

29 resulted in the deaths of 2 million people; and

30 WHEREAS, the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo, Srebrenica, and other cities in Bosnia and

31 Herzegovina, which ultimately led to the deaths of more than 200,000 Bosniaks, or Bosnian

32 Muslims; and

33 WHEREAS, the Al-Anfal Campaign (1984-1988), under the leadership of Saddam Hussein,

34 sought to destroy and depopulate the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq and notoriously used

35 chemical weapons to that end, which caused the deaths of over 180,000 Kurds and others,

36 the destruction of more than 4,500 villages (90 percent of villages in the region), and resulted

37 in creating millions of refugees and internally displaced persons; and

38 WHEREAS, in April of 1994, the Rwandan president’s airplane was shot down, which led

39 to the slaying of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by the Interhamwe over the next three

40 months; and

41 WHEREAS, in April of 2003, the displacement and killing of Darfurians began by the

42 government of Sudan, and led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and the displacement of

43 millions, which continues unabated to this day; and

44 WHEREAS, DAESH, the so-called Islamic State, has forcefully caused the civilian

45 population of the Ezidi-Kurdhish religious minority in Iraq and Syria, beginning in 2014

46 through the present day, to flee from their ancestral towns, villages, and holy sites as a result

47 of forced conversion, killing, kidnapping, and enslaving of their population–particularly

48 women and children. According to their records, this is the 74th genocide throughout that

49 population’s history; and

50 WHEREAS, the Genocide Prevention Task Force released its report on December of 2008

51 to spotlight genocide prevention as a national priority; and

52 WHEREAS, in 2011, the President of the United States declared the prevention of mass

53 atrocities and genocide to be a “core national security interest and core moral responsibility”

54 of the United States and ordered the creation of the Atrocities Prevention Board in 2012; and

16 LC 111 0198

55 WHEREAS, the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust is a state agency whose mission is

56 to use the lessons of the Holocaust to educate the citizens of Georgia on the consequences

57 of unchecked hate and the need for social justice, and to encourage strong moral character

58 and citizenship; and

59 WHEREAS, the Georgia Coalition to Prevent Genocide operates as a proactive group with

60 a mission to develop a permanent antigenocide constituency in Georgia, and it depends on

61 citizen support to engage elected officials at the state and national levels through advocacy

62 and action and by creating awareness within the community; and

63 WHEREAS, it is abundantly fitting and proper to recognize the contributions of the Georgia

64 Coalition to Prevent Genocide, Am Yisrael Chai, Eternal-Life Hemshech of Holocaust

65 Survivors, the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust, the Jewish Community Relations

66 Council of Atlanta, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the American Jewish

67 Committee (AJC) Atlanta Regional Office, and AJC’s ACCESS Atlanta in their efforts to

68 enhance the security and dignity of minority populations across the globe.

69 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE that the members of this body

70 recognize the month of April, 2016, as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month at the

71 Capitol and commend the Georgia Coalition to Prevent Genocide for its dedicated efforts in

72 preventing genocide.

73 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Senate is authorized and directed

74 to make appropriate copies of this resolution available for distribution to the Georgia

75 Coalition to Prevent Genocide.

S.R. 991 was sponsored by State Senators Elena Parent, David Shafer, Renee Unterman, Joshua McKoon, Nan Orrock, and Harold Jones II.

 

Armenian figure skating pair Tina Garabedian and Simon Senekal won a silver medal at the Bavarian Open 2016 international competition, press service of the Armenian National Olympic Committee reports.

With a total score of 140.16 in free dancing the Armenian couple came second after Penny Coomes- Nicholas Buckland of Great Britain.

The Garabedian- Senekal pair will now be able to participate in the World Championship in Boston.

The Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) has  launched its latest in Education Innovation, the AGBU WebTalks online video series. AGBU WebTalks aims to capture and preserve the insights of engaging, dynamic thinkers from around the world, speaking on a wide range of Armenian topics.

With these short videos, AGBU WebTalks seeks to create a rich repository of knowledge and provide easy access to reliable information to meet the demands of an increasingly connected and visual world. This new platform will bring together expertise on Armenian topics in one easily accessible online resource.

“Every generation has its own approach to dealing with questions of identity and community. This multigenerational sharing and learning platform focuses on access, dissemination and preservation of the knowledge and insight of scholars, intellectuals, artists and many others on topics pertaining to the Armenian reality. The curated content allows individuals to navigate and explore their Armenianness through different perspectives shared by leading experts and opinion makers,” says Lena Sarkissian, AGBU Central Board Member and Director of Program Development at the Zoryan Institute’s International Institute for Genocide and Human Rights.

AGBU WebTalks debuts with five videos, produced in partnership with the Zoryan Institute, an international academic and scholarly center devoted to the documentation, study and dissemination of material related to issues of universal human rights, genocide, diasporas and Armenia. The videos were filmed during the “Responsibility 2015” international conference held in New York in March 2015 as part of the centennial commemorations of the Armenian Genocide and feature interviews with journalists Laure Marchand and Guillaume Perrier; human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson; historian Raymond Kévorkian; psychologist Israel Charny; and professor of history Richard Hovannisian. The themes of the aforementioned videos revolve around politics and the Armenian Genocide. The videos currently in production explore a diverse array of topics from art and architecture to classical, jazz and folk music.

“AGBU remains committed to enhancing education with innovation. With high quality, accessible content, we can not only ensure that Armenians have an archive of our history, but we can utilize these tools to further our mission by promoting Armenian subjects to be used in non-Armenian universities and schools. Now, with AGBU WebTalks, we can encourage professors of art, architecture, history and linguistics to incorporate the Armenian story into their syllabi, giving us a new platform for integrating our heritage in classrooms around the world,” added Ani Manoukian, AGBU Central Board Member.

AGBU WebTalks is part of a larger multimedia platform currently in development. Set to launch later this year, this online platform is a global access point offering innovative multimedia educational tools to foster and promote the learning of Armenian language, history and culture. “As part of this larger platform,” added Lena Sarkissian, “the WebTalks series provides a living repository of our distinguished minds as well as a living archive of our community activities. It is all about making connections-to knowledge, to leading experts, to one’s history, to one’s culture, to one’s identity, to being Armenian. Thus, AGBU provides one more opportunity to help forge the future of the Armenian world.”

To learn more about the AGBU WebTalks series, please visit www.agbuwebtalks.org.

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Igor Popov of the Russian Federation, James Warlick of the United States of America, and Pierre Andrieu of France – welcome efforts to find a negotiated settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and are prepared to work cooperatively with those committed to a peaceful settlement.

We understand that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) may consider resolutions on the conflict in the near future and remind PACE, and other regional and international organizations, that the Minsk Group remains the only accepted format for negotiations.

We appreciate the interest paid by PACE members, but urge that steps not be taken which could undermine the Minsk Group’s mandate from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe or complicate ongoing negotiations.