The California Courier Online, October 17, 2019
1 - A Declassified Top Secret CIA Report
On the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Bipartisan, Int’l Outcry as Trump’s ‘Great, Unmatched Wisdom’
Allows Erdogan to Perpetrate War on Kurds in Syria
3 - Celebrities, Tech Entrepreneurs Converge in Yerevan for WCIT 2019
4- Seta and Alec Ekmekji to Present ‘Aleppo: Culture & Cuisine’
5- Turkey Detains Armenian human rights activist Arlet Natali Avazyan
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1 - A Declassified Top Secret CIA Report
On the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
A 48-page Central Intelligence Agency Top Secret Report, prepared in
August 1988 and made public in 2012 with some deletions, is titled
“Unrest in the Caucasus and the Challenge of Nationalism.” Despite the
passage of time, the Report includes an interesting analysis of the
Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) conflict from the perspective of U.S.
intelligence services.
The CIA analyst, in the introduction of his Report, traced the origins
of the Artsakh conflict: “Enmity between Armenian and Azeri factions
has existed for hundreds of years, and the 1920’s settlement
subordinating Nagorno-Karabagh—Armenia’s cultural and religious
center—to the Azerbaijan Republic has been a continual, albeit
long-muted, source of Armenian frustration and concern. Azeri
animosity toward the Armenians has been intensified by political,
economic, and demographic trends that have adversely affected the
political status of Azeris and increased the gap in living standards
between Azerbaijan and Armenia. In particular, the rapid expansion of
Azerbaijan’s young adult population has put enormous strain on the
Republic’s capacity to provide adequate jobs, housing, and education.
Azeri frustration has found an outlet in attacks on Armenians.”
The unnamed CIA analyst reported that a split within the Politburo on
how to handle the Artsakh crisis made the situation worse. Second
Secretary Ligachev and KGB Chief Chebrikov were the hardliners who
vehemently opposed the separation of Artsakh from Azerbaijan. They
disagreed with Gorbachev’s reforms and blamed foreign powers for
inciting unrest inside the Soviet Union.
When two prominent Armenian writers, Silva Kaputikyan and Zori
Balayan, met with Gorbachev in Moscow in February 1988, they reported
that he was well briefed and assured them that he wanted a “just
solution.” He acknowledged “the peaceful nature of the [Armenian]
demonstrations and emphasized his personal sympathy with the desire to
reunite Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia….”
Upon the return of the Armenian envoys to Yerevan, in a radio
broadcast on February 27, 1988, Kaputikyan called for Armenians to
trust Gorbachev. “He knows about and understands our problem and wants
to resolve it personally…. We must do our utmost to ensure that no
harm” is done to him, Kaputikyan announced.
Regarding Soviet concerns about foreign, particularly
Armenian-American interference in domestic Soviet turmoil, the CIA
analyst reported: “The recent unrest appears to have made Soviet
officials more fearful about the role of foreign actors in the
Nagorno-Karabakh problem. Of the approximately 5.5 million people in
the world today who speak Armenian, about 60 percent live outside the
Soviet Armenian republic, about 1.4 million elsewhere in the USSR, and
2 million abroad. So far, Armenian emigres—most of whom see Turkey
much more than Russia as the historic oppressor of their nation—have
not been actively involved in pushing for change in the Soviet system
or in Soviet policies. Moscow worries that diaspora attitudes could
turn sharply critical of the USSR and that Armenians in the United
States, particularly, could grow into a powerful anti-Soviet pressure
group. Soviet officials are wary of the large concentration of
Armenians in California and New York, states with large electoral
votes that have been closely contested in previous presidential
elections.”
In a footnote at the end of the previous paragraph, the CIA analyst
specified that “the United States hosts at least 600,000 Armenians.
About 90 percent of America’s Soviet Armenian immigrants came to
California. Los Angeles—with 100,000—has the largest community of
Armenians outside Yerevan. The New York City region has about 70,000
Armenians, mostly from Lebanon and Iran.”
The CIA analyst added: “Moscow may be concerned that foreign Armenian
terrorist groups like the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of
Armenia (ASALA) could turn against Soviet targets—although we have no
evidence that this is the case. Hitherto, the USSR has figured very
little in ASALA’s blending of armed struggle with Marxist ideology;
the dominant faction of ASALA considers Soviet Armenia as liberated
territory and the group concentrates its attacks exclusively on
Turkish officials. In fact, ASALA eventually would like to see ‘the
Armenian provinces’ now located in Turkey and possibly Iraq [?]
reattach themselves to the Soviet Armenian core. Furthermore, ASALA is
now in a quiet phase, and its leader was assassinated on 28 April
[1988]. Nevertheless, ASALA in early April did send a moderately
worded appeal to Gorbachev supporting the reunification of Karabakh
with Armenia, while characteristically stressing that Armenia is an
integral part of the USSR and seeks only to rectify the border, not to
pursue claims against Moscow.”
Finally, the CIA analyst explained the position of Turkey on the
Karabakh conflict: “Although the Turkish Government has not explicitly
sided with Azerbaijan, Turkey’s fear of resurgent Armenian nationalism
makes Ankara sympathetic to Baku. When the crisis broke in February
[1988], Turkish Government spokesmen indicated publicly that
international agreements entitle Ankara to a voice in the crisis, an
apparent reference to the 1921 treaty between the USSR and Turkey that
led to the shift of Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhichevan to Azerbaijan.
Turkey no doubt especially feared that transferring Nagorno-Karabakh
to Armenia would whet Armenian appetites and would lead to increased
pressure to change the status of Nakhichevan and to acquire former
Armenian regions in Turkey. Turkish officials probably also noted that
some Armenian expansionist demands for a ‘Greater Armenia’ were based
on historic claims rather than on the ethnic composition of the
affected territories. Thus, some Armenians have demanded the return of
Nakhichevan, even though Azeris now greatly outnumber Armenians in
this region. Using such historical criteria, could give Armenians a
claim even on some border parts of Turkey where only 50,000 Armenians
now live.”
The CIA analyst concluded his Report by outlining five options the
USSR had for the resolution of the Artsakh conflict:
1) “Sticking with the Status Quo”
2) “Making Further Economic Concessions” to Armenians
3) “Enhancing Autonomy of Nagorno-Karabakh Within Azerbaijan”
4) Expanding “Extraterritorial Native Cultural Institutions”
5) “Reconfiguration of Nagorno-Karabakh” by splitting it between
Armenia and Azerbaijan.
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2- Bipartisan, Int’l Outcry as Trump’s ‘Great, Unmatched Wisdom’
Allows Erdogan to Perpetrate War on Kurds in Syria
(Combined Sources)—Turkey launched air strikes, fired artillery and
began a ground offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria on
Wednesday, October 9 after U.S. troops pulled back from the area.
Seventeen civilians and dozens of fighters on both sides, have been
killed since Turkish troops and its Syrian rebel allies launched a
cross-border incursion against Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces
(SDF).
Among the dead in Syria are three children, rights groups have
reported. The Turkish authorities meanwhile said that that nine
people, including a nine-month-old baby had been killed on the Turkish
side.
Residents of Qamishli shared gruesome photos of two children hit by
artillery fire. They said Mohamed, 15, was killed by the attack. His
sister, 8, whose foot was shown dangling from her shattered leg by
just a thread, later had her limb amputated.
“Everyone was yelling and screaming in the hospital. The children’s
aunt was crying, begging people to share blood, they needed a rare
B-type for the little girl,” said Sharine, a resident of the city who
went to the hospital to help.
“The doctors tried to reassure the aunt but in the last second they
had to admit the little girl would lose her leg. Everyone looked
horrified,” she told The Independent.
“The parents were busy burying the little boy, they had no idea their
daughter was undergoing an amputation,” she added.
Over 100,000 people have since fled their homes as Ankara’s military
advanced, capturing nine Syrian villages and encircling two
Kurdish-held towns.
Under airstrikes and heavy artillery, panicked residents of the Syrian
border towns told The Independent they had “nowhere to hide”.
Most Armenian families have been evacuated from the Syrian city of Tel
Abyad. They have moved to Al-Hasakah Governorate and Aleppo, said
Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, the head of the National Assembly’s Standing
Committee on Education, Science, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport.
According to some reports, Armenian families in Ras al-Ayn have also
been relocated. About 3,000 Armenians in Qamishli are still in the
city. The local authorities see no need in relocating the population
at this point.
The Armenian Embassy in Syria and the Consulate General in Aleppo keep
in touch with the communities in north-eastern Syria.
The United Nations Security Council met behind closed doors on
Thursday, October 10 to discuss the situation in Syria.
The meeting of the 15-member council was requested by the five
European members, Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and Poland,
Reuters reported.
The Armenian Government also held a closed-door meeting to discuss the
situation in Syria. Armenia’s Security Council has been instructed to
outline an action plan on how to help ensure the security of local
Armenian communities, the Council’s Secretary Armen Grigoryan said
after the meeting.
Late last week, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement, strongly
condemning Turkey’s invasion, saying “it would lead to deterioration
of regional security, losses among civilians, mass displacement and
eventually to a new humanitarian crisis.”
The Ministry said Armenia would continue to provide humanitarian
assistance to the friendly people of Syria on the ground.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to send millions of
Syrian refugees to Europe in retaliation for stinging world criticism
of his military operation in northern Syria. Lashing out at the
European Union and others that joined a global chorus of condemnation,
Erdogan warned he would “open the gates” if anyone called his
offensive “an invasion.”
“We will open the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your way,”
Erdogan said in a fiery speech on Thursday. Taking aim at the storm of
criticism from across the world, he added: “They are not honest, they
just make up words … We, however, take action and that is the
difference between us.”
Turkey had threatened a cross-border offensive for years but only
pressed ahead after U.S. president Donald Trump unexpectedly ordered a
pullback of U.S. forces from the border area on October 6.
In a statement issued after Erdogan spoke by phone with Trump, the
White House said Turkey would “soon be moving forward” with its
“long-planned operation” in northern Syria and that the United States
wouldn’t be involved.
Trump remained defiant on the matter, tweeting Monday: “The Kurds
fought with us, but were paid massive amounts of money and equipment
to do so.
“They have been fighting Turkey for decades. I held off this fight for
almost three years, but it is time for us to get out of these
ridiculous endless wars, many of them tribal, and bring our soldiers
home.”
“We will fight where it is to our benefit, and only fight to win,” he continued.
After the announcement, the SDF called the decision a “stab in the back.”
The SDF has been a key partner of the United States in the fight
against ISIS. The group, which received arms as well as significant
air and ground support from the United States, lost some 11,000
fighters in the years-long war before recapturing the last piece of
Isis territory in March.
Just weeks before Trump’s announcement, the SDF had destroyed several
of its military defenses near to the border with Turkey as part of a
U.S.-led security agreement.
In an attempt to defend his decision, Trump hit out at critics and
said the Kurds “didn’t help us in the Second World War.” He later
appeared to backtrack warning Ankara that it would be hit hard
financially if it did not “play by the rules.”
Ankara considers the SDF a terrorist organization for its links to
Kurdish separatists in Turkey.
It claims its operation intends to create a “safe zone” to facilitate
the return of millions of refugees, with Turkey’s foreign minister
saying the operation would go no further than 30km into Syria.
But world leaders and aid agencies fear that vulnerable families, who
fled war, will be forcibly re-located there and a military incursion
in northern Syria, which is home to over 700,000 people that rely on
aid, would cause a “humanitarian catastrophe”.
Many also predicted that Turkey’s offensive would run the risk of ISIS
prisoners escaping from camps—which hold some 18,000 militants—amid
the chaos. Five ISIS militants broke out of a prison in Qamishli on
October 11. Meanwhile, women affiliated with ISIS attacked security
officers with sticks and stones, and set tents ablaze during unrest at
al-Hol camp in the region.
The European Union, which sparked the wrath of Mr Erdogan, said
forcibly relocating Syrian refugees to northern Syria would not
“satisfy international criteria for refugee return as laid down by
UNHCR”.
“Any attempt at demographic change would be unacceptable,” the
blistering statement added.
“The EU will not provide stabilization or development assistance in
areas where the rights of local populations are ignored.”
Dominic Raab the foreign secretary, meanwhile said he called his
Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday afternoon “to express
the UK’s disappointment and concern about the military incursion into
northeastern Syria and call for restraint.”
He said the intervention risks greater humanitarian suffering and
“undermines the focus on countering Daesh [ISIS]”.
Finland, Denmark and India echoed the UK’s condemnation. While several
regional powerhouses, including Israel, Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia
and Kuwait, also expressed their alarm. An emergency Arab League
session was called on Saturday to discuss the operation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even pledged to send
humanitarian aid to the Kurds and warned of possible “ethnic cleansing
… by Turkey and its proxies.”
Turkey’s incursion into Syria prompted fresh bipartisan condemnation
of President Donald Trump’s moves and more congressional threats to
hamstring Turkey economically, with some Republicans calling the
situation “sickening” and a “terrible mistake” by the president.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), usually
reliable allies of Trump, both lambasted the president after Turkey
moved into northeastern Syria. Lawmakers in both parties assert that
the U.S. pullout has created a “disaster in the making,” as Graham put
it.
“While the administration refuses to act against Turkey, I expect
strong bipartisan support,” Graham said. “Most members of Congress
believe it would be wrong to abandon the Kurds, who have been strong
allies against ISIS.”
Cheney’s words were equally strong. She said “President Trump’s
decision to withdraw U.S. forces from northern Syria is having
sickening and predictable consequences” and vowed that lawmakers “must
and will act to limit the catastrophic impact of this decision.”
Lawmakers in both parties have shown significant support for a
continued U.S. presence in Syria this year. But whether Congress will
able to do much about it is an open question.
The response from Republicans has been one of the most vocal
challenges to Trump in his nearly three years in office. Some like
Graham and Cheney called out the president by name, and others cast
his decision-making in stark and dire terms.
The Kurds “actually fought on the ground. They had people dying. To
just abandon them like that so the Turks can come in and slaughter
them is not just immoral, it taints our reputation all over the
world,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Tuesday. “It’s a terrible
mistake. We’ll have to think of what options there are. I’m sure the
Senate will, potentially, take some vote to disagree with that
decision.”
“President Trump’s decision to abandon the Kurds, our major ally in
the fight against ISIS, was terribly unwise. Today, we are seeing the
consequences of that terrible decision,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine)
said.
Trump has defended his actions as a much-needed withdrawal from the
Middle East. But he was conducting some measure of damage control on
Wednesday, releasing a statement about Turkey’s invasion of Syria:
“The United States does not endorse this attack and has made it clear
to Turkey that this operation is a bad idea.”
He said Turkey is “committed to protecting civilians, protecting
religious minorities, including Christians, and ensuring no
humanitarian crisis takes place—and we will hold them to this
commitment.”
Trump called U.S. intervention in the Middle East the “worst decision
ever made in the history of our country.”
The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) issued a statement
on Turkey’s offensive in Syria and the U.S. decision to pull out its
troops.
“The ANCA continues to engage with Administration and Congressional
stakeholders, coalition partners, and Armenian community leaders in
the region regarding the profoundly dangerous impact of the Trump
Administration’s ill-advised decision to abruptly withdraw forces from
northeast Syria, inviting a Turkish invasion that is already targeting
Kurds and also Armenians and other at-risk Christian, Yazidi, and
Muslim populations,” said the statement.
“Mindful of the continuing consequences of the Armenian
Genocide—including those directly threatening the remaining Western
Armenian populations in northeast Syria—we join with Senators Lindsey
Graham, Chris Van Hollen, and others—from both houses of Congress—in
supporting bipartisan legislation imposing the harshest sanctions on
Turkey for attacks upon America’s Kurdish allies or civilian
populations.”
Meanwhile, Moscow, which has sided with President Bashar al-Assad in
the bloody civil war in Syria, reiterated Monday that the country’s
territorial integrity must be preserved.
“We hope that our Turkish colleagues would stick to this position in
all situations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
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3 - Celebrities, Tech Entrepreneurs Converge in Yerevan for WCIT 2019
(Combined Sources)—The 2019 World Congress on Information Technologies
(WCIT) commenced on October 6 in Yerevan with a huge concert at the
Republic Square.
Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan delivered remarks at the
opening ceremony in the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concert Complex,
the official venue of the event.
Pashinyan voiced hope that the ongoing economic revolution would lead
to a technological one, making Armenia one of the leading innovative
countries in the world, a true technology center.
“This goal seems realistic to us also because many sons of the
Armenian nation are the creators of well-known technological
innovations,” said Pashinyan.
Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises President Alexander Yesayan,
the chairman of the steering committee of WCIT 2019, also spoke.
A number of panel discussions on topics ranging from artificial
intelligence, virtual reality, smart cities to cybersecurity, and
climate change took place during conference.
The WCIT World Orchestra, conducted by Sergey Smbatyan, performed the
first ever concert of music written live by artificial intelligence.
The Orchestra, which is formed of more than 120 musicians from all
over the world, also includes members of the Armenian State Symphony
Orchestra.
The special composition was written on the spot by the new technology
– developed specifically for the concert. Using machine-learning, the
technology was fed thousands of pieces of traditional Armenian music
over an eight-month period in order to create a new Armenian-style
piece for the opening ceremony.
The musicians received the AI-composed scores live onto individual
iPads as it was being composed, which they, with the conductor
sight-read live for the audience. Renowned Armenian composer Aram
Khachaturyan’s most acclaimed composition, The Sabre Dance, was also
brought into the digital age with an awe-inspiring 3D mapping
projected onto the Republic Square.
At the end of the concert, internationally acclaimed DJ Armin van
Buuren performed for the first time in Armenia, closing the ceremony
with his psychedelic visual effects. Van Buuren is a Grammy-winning DJ
and record producer. His unique mixes are credited with erupting
trance music into a global sensation.
WCIT is the signature event of the World Information Technology &
Services Alliance (WITSA), a consortium of ICT associations from 83
countries, representing 90 percent of the industry. Running for 40
years, the WCIT is one of the oldest and most prestigious ICT events
in the world that brings together CEOs, investors, policy makers,
government officials, academics, and technologists to discuss the
current state of the industry as well as where it is going.
This year, WCIT will address The Power of Decentralization: Promise
and Peril to explore how information and communications technology is
transforming our lives for better and for worse—its impact on profits
and prosperity, safety and security, democracy and humanity.
Kim Kardashian, CNN’s Richard Quest, Infosys founder Narayan Murthy,
GIPHY founder Alex Chung, Serj Tankian, Reddit and Initialized Capital
co-founder Alexis Ohanian were among the speakers.
“Good to be back home,” Alexis said upon his arrival at Zvartnots
International Airport.
He said the Shakmat brandy was a dream come true, but he would like to
get involved in Armenia more broadly and show the world all the most
amazing things that come out of this country.
Speaking about the WCIT Congress, Ohanian said it’s a good chance to
show all the things “Hayastan has to offer.”
“There are world-class talents, world-class developers here, who are
able to build really great technology,” Alexis stated.
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4- Seta and Alec Ekmekji to Present ‘Aleppo: Culture & Cuisine’
On November 9, at 10:30 a.m., Seta and Alec Ekmekji will present
‘Aleppo: Culture and Cuisine’ at the Downtown Central Library in the
Mark Taper Auditorium.
Aleppo can boast one of the richest and most diverse cuisines in the
world. Despite its wide acclaim, only a paltry handful of Aleppo
dishes are ever served at Los Angeles restaurants and it remains a
cuisine of great home cooks.
One day, Aleppo natives Seta Ekmekji and her sister-in-law, Rhoda
Margossian, decided to compile some of their recipes to leave to their
children, a project that developed a life of its own and turned into a
cookbook. Seta and her son Alec will present a brief history of
Aleppo, talk about the lifestyle there, and discuss some of the
recipes in their book—dishes that cannot be easily found in
restaurants, even in Aleppo itself. Samples will be served after the
talk.
When Seta Ekmekji was thirty-five, the U.S. Consul in Aleppo invited
her and her husband to immigrate to America. Here Seta created a new
career for herself as a banker, ending her career as a manager of the
Beverly Hills branch of Bank of America. Son Alec attended Hollywood
High School and UCLA, holds a Master’s Degree in Physics, and has
worked as an engineer in the defense industry. He dreamt that after
retiring he would return to Aleppo and live there for a year, but the
recent war has prevented this. Alec is also a writer of short stories
and poetry, and recently published his first book, titled Beneath the
Glass Bell. Currently he is working on a book of translations of
Armenian poetry into English.
Parking (validated $1) is available Flower Street between 5th and 6th
Streets, on the left side, under the library’s garden.
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5- Turkey Detains Armenian human rights activist Arlet Natali Avazyan
Arlet Natali Avazyan, a Turkish human rights activist of Armenian
descent, was detained following a police raid on her house on Tuesday.
According to a Twitter account, police teams searched Avazyan’s house
and then took her to the Anatolia Courthouse in İstanbul’s Kartal
district.
Avazyan yesterday tweeted that she had been summoned by Turkish police
to testify in a case filed against her for alleged terrorism links.
“I was just called by the law enforcement agency. I was called to
testify due to my tweets. If I am not checked in an hospital by my
doctor tomorrow, I will go to the police to give a testimony. Until
864 imprisoned babies are set free, I will continue my tweets,”
Avazyan tweeted.
Avazyan is known in Turkey with her tweets that are in critical of the
Turkish government.
In the aftermath of a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016, more than
17,000 women from all walks of life including teachers, doctors and
housewives have been jailed in Turkey on coup charges in
government-led operations. There are currently more than 800 children
accompanying their mothers in Turkish jails.
This article appeared in Turkey Purge on October 8, 2019.
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