Author: Talar Tumanian

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western United States Central Committee on Thursday issued an announcement regarding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Los Angeles. The Central Committee met with Pashinyan Sunday evening and touch on broad topics of national concern.

Below is the text of the ARF CC’s announcement.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Los Angeles on Sunday called attention to the Armenian American community’s resilience to rise up from throes of tragedy and Genocide to become integral and interwoven participants in the advancement of the City of Los Angeles, the State of California and the United States.

The ARF Western U.S. Central Committee believes that the role of the Diaspora is much more than mere financial contributions and aid, and is a dynamic and political force championing the Armenian cause. Thus, during our meeting with the prime minister, we outlined the imperative of remaining united on national issues and the risks of creating divisions within the nation. We further emphasized that the ARF is united in its ideology and approaches to all national issues, and the Armenian diaspora has continuously joined us in our collective efforts to realize our national goals. As such we believe that it is essential to utilize the potential of our people to advance our just cause and safeguard Armenia’s national security. Within this context, we also explained that for the Diaspora, preserving the Armenian identity has not been a mere task, but rather a fundamental tenet for advancing the aspirations of the Armenian Nation in service to the strengthening of Armenia’s statehood and creating a truly free, independent and prosperous, and eventually united homeland.

The prime minister visited Los Angeles, a community that was built from the ground up by survivors of massacres, persecution and the Armenian Genocide. The ARF has played a pivotal and central role in creating vital educational, cultural and advocacy institutions that have not only preserved the Armenian identity but, for generations, have nurtured and advanced the imperative and aspiration of a free, united and independent Armenian state as the most crucial element of our Nation’s perseverance.

The ARF Western U.S. Central Committee communicated to the prime minister its steadfast and unwavering commitment to furthering an agenda that, at every step, will strengthen the Republic of Armenia, guarantee its prosperity and fortify its national security, all of which have been ideological hallmarks of the ARF during its 130-year history. To this end, we expressed hope that the prime minister’s assurances to advance social justice, reform the judiciary and combat corruption will come to fruition—while upholding Armenia’s Constitution—and pledged the ARF’s support in hastening that effort as well as our unwavering commitment to the international recognition of the Republic of Artsakh and our people’s right to self-determination.

We are confident that after the prime minister’s visit to Los Angeles, our community will rally around our national agenda and take positive steps that will translate into actionable items with concrete results to advance the Armenian Cause and elevate our nation to new heights.

ARF Western U.S. Central Committee

CANBERRA, Australia—Senator Eric Abetz – Chair of the Australian Senate’s Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee, Senator Richard Di Natale – the Leader of the Australian Greens, and Glenn Davies – the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, lead a group of seven high-profile additions to the growing distinguished membership of the Australian Friends of Artsakh.

The Armenian National Committee of Australia report that Senators Abetz and Di Natale, as well as Archbishop Davies, have joined as new members of the group, together with the President of New South Wales Legislative Council John Ajaka, the New South Wales Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello, City of Willoughby Councilor Stuart Coppock, and City of Ryde Councilor Trenton Brown.

The Australian Friends of Artsakh was launched last month by the ANC-AU, with an announcement dubbed #MOVINGMOUNTAINS during the visit by a high-profile delegation from the Republic of Artsakh, led by Foreign Minister Masis Mayilyan.

Among the inaugural 40 signatories were Federal Ministers and Parliamentarians, a State Premier and fellow State Parliamentarians, a Mayor and Councilors, academics, thought leaders, and heads of several religious and community institutions—all pledging solidarity to the rights to self-determination of the Armenians of the Republic of Artsakh.

The new additions mean the group now has 47 prominent Australians as signatories.

“Senator Abetz, Senator Di Natale, Archbishop Davies, Mr. Ajaka, Mr. Dominello, Mr. Coppock and Mr. Brown are all welcome additions to the Australian Friends of Artsakh,” stated ANC-AU Executive Director Haig Kayserian.

“The petro-dictatorship of Azerbaijan, who denies the indigenous Armenians of Artsakh their basic human right to self-determination and independence on their ancestral lands, resorted to propaganda and bullying tactics to try and prevent our leaders from joining in solidarity with this issue,” added Kayserian, referring to official complaints from Baku to Canberra trying to bring Australian leaders into line with the Department of Foreign Affairs’ pro-Azerbaijani position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Kayserian said: “This high-profile expansion of the Australian Friends of Artsakh shows that the currency of truth and justice wins over the unwelcome interference by a foreign dictatorship into the internal affairs of Australia’s sovereign democracy.”

Senators Abetz and Di Natale join a strong Federal Parliamentary contingent of signatories to the Australian Friends of Artsakh, which includes Australia’s Communications Minister and Member of Parliament Paul Fletcher, Assistant Treasurer and Member of Parliament Michael Sukkar, Shadow Home Affairs Minister Senator Kristina Keneally and Shadow Agriculture & Resources Minister and Member of Parliament Joel Fitzgibbon.

Fitzgibbon is the co-convener of the Armenia-Australia Inter-Parliamentary Union along with the Chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Health, Aged Care & Sport and Member of Parliament Trent Zimmerman, who also joined the Australian Friends of Artsakh, along with fellow Chairs of Federal Parliamentary Committees including John Alexander, Julian Leeser, Jason Falinski and Tim Wilson, who is the only Member of Australia’s Federal Parliament with Armenian heritage. Newly elected Federal Parliamentarian Josh Burns is also a friend of Artsakh.

President of the Legislative Council John Ajaka and Minister for Customer Service and Member of Parliament Victor Dominello join Member of Parliament Gladys Berejiklian—the Premier of Australia’s largest state of New South Wales on the list of State Parliamentarians among the Australian Friends of Artsakh, which also includes Speaker of the NSW Legislative Assembly Jonathan O’Dea Member of Parliament and his fellow convener of the NSW Armenia-Australia Parliamentary Friendship Group, Shadow Treasurer Walt Secord, Member of Legislative Council.

Member of Parliament Dr. Hugh McDermott and Member of Legislative Council Rev. Fred Nile are also among the current NSW parliamentarians in the group, along with former state political representatives, including Marie Ficarra and Amanda Fazio.

Councilors Coppock and Brown join fellow Local Government representatives who were among the inaugural signatories to the Australian Friends of Artsakh, including Mayor Jerome Laxale, Councilors Sarkis Yedelian and Jordan Lane – from the City of Ryde, and Councilors Hugh Eriksson, Brendan Zhu, Angelo Rozos and Lynne Saville – from the City of Willoughby.

A number of academics and civil society leaders also signed on to support Artsakh, including Professor Peter Stanley, Dr. Sev Ozdowski, Dr. Panayiotis Diamadis, Dr. Brian Owler and Chris Crewther.

Archbishop Glenn Davies joins a series of leaders of communities and churches to join the Australian Friends of Artsakh as signatories.

Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk, the personal representative of the OSCE Chairman in Office, was in Stapenakert where he held meetings with Artsakh President Bako Shahakian and Artsakh Foreign Minister Masis Mayilyan on Tuesday.

Sahakian briefed Kasprzyk about the latest developments on the Artsakh-Azerbaijan border, commonly referred to as the line of contact.

Kasprzyk, who is in Artsakh to take part in a regular OSCE monitoring mission, and Shahakian also touched on Artsakh and Azerbaijani troop movements along the border.

Mayilyan and Kasprzyk discussed the issue of Artsakh soldier Ara Ghazaryan, who last week abandoned his post at a military unit in Varanda (formerly Fizouli) and crossed the border into Azerbaijan. The two discussed the possibility of repatriating him. Mayilyan underscored the need for the parties to the conflict to fulfill their obligations on complying with international humanitarian law.

The sides exchanged views on the situation on the Line of Contact between the armed forces of Artsakh and Azerbaijan, as well as the monitoring missions conducted that Kasprzyk is scheduled to lead on Wednesday.