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Month: September 2020
Azerbaijan picks a fight over lost Armenian enclave
Asia Times by Richard Giragossian Sept. 28, 2020 Surprise assault on Nagorno Karabakh leaves dozens dead in what could be the first salvo in a protracted conflict YEREVAN – Following months of bellicose threats, Azerbaijan launched on Sunday a coordinated military offensive against the Armenian-held breakaway republic of Nagorno Karabakh, leaving dozens dead and raising the specter of a protracted open war. On Monday morning, Karabakh officials announced 32 Armenian soldiers had been killed, as well as two civilians, a woman and child. Baku said an Azeri family of five were killed by Armenian shelling but did not announce any casualties among its armed forces. Azerbaijan, a gas-rich state run by an authoritarian dynasty, declared martial law on September 27, as did Armenia, whose president called for a general mobilization of military personnel. The eruption of hostilities over the vast and strategic mountainous territory comes two months after Azeri forces launched a cross-border attack, which only differed by targeting Armenia proper. Since that foiled July incursion, Azerbaijan has been increasingly open about its disdain for diplomacy and desire to rely on the force of arms. “Karabakh is ours! Karabakh is Azerbaijan,” Azeri President Ilham Aliyev tweeted on Sunday. For the nearly three decades since the implosion of the Soviet Union, unresolved conflicts continue to litter the landscape. One of those is over Nagorno Karabakh, seized by Armenian forces during the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Azerbaijan, following the loss of the enclave which it had been granted during the Soviet era, continues to claim Karabakh as part of its territory – a claim recognized by the United Nations. The unresolved nature of this and other lingering conflicts of the Soviet breakup have served to distort economic development, discourage democratization and, in most cases, defend Russian influence and interests. For Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Nagorno Karabakh conflict poses its own burden, as an imperative for Armenia’s embrace of Russia for security and as an impulse for Azerbaijan to challenge the status quo. After decades of peace talks, Azerbaijan is frustrated by the lack of any substantive progress in negotiating the status of the 4,400 square kilometer territory. Defined by a sense of national humiliation over the loss of the historic region, Azerbaijan’s frustration has now reached a dangerous level as it drives a resolution to the conflict by military means. The country is armed with billions of dollars worth of armaments purchased in recent years with its vast gas wealth. This latest military offensive shows Azerbaijan’s desire to negotiate on the battlefield rather than at diplomatic summits. Despite a sometimes confusing war of words over who started the fighting, the military reality on the ground suggests that the purely defensive force posture for the Armenian and Karabakh sides greatly reduces any offensive threat, thereby revealing little logic and even less validity in Azerbaijan’s claims that Armenia attacked first. From a military perspective, the Karabakh defenders would be unlikely to cede their advantage by launching a risky offensive that negates or diminishes tactical advantages inherent in their entrenched fortified defensive positions. Unlike the political and diplomatic context, however, it is less important and largely irrelevant who attacked first. Once forces are engaged in combat operations they tend to follow their own logic and tempo. Context of conflict In the opening round of fighting on early Sunday morning, the Azerbaijani attacks left 10 Karabakh soldiers and at least one civilian dead, with more wounded. By Monday morning, the toll had risen to 32 soldiers announced dead by the Armenian defense ministry. This latest round of fighting is markedly different than previous clashes, opening a new chapter of the Karabakh conflict. This latest Azerbaijani offensive has been much grander in scale and space, with coordinated attacks all along the line of contact separating Nagorno Karabakh from Azerbaijan proper. Unlike the two sides’ previous round of fighting in April 2016, which at the time was the most serious seen since a fragile ceasefire was reached in 1994, the latest salvos are marked for their intensity and use of heavier firepower. A second new aspect of the offensive is rooted in the scope of combat operations. For example, this sudden offensive opened with preliminary massive artillery and rocket barrages. Those were then followed by an assault on three areas along the line of contact between Karabakh and Azerbaijan that involved the use of armored units in support of an infantry ground assault that was bolstered by the deployment of more than two dozen UAVs, or military-grade drones. After inflicting the initial damage and casualties in the surprise attack at dawn on Sunday, later that morning Karabakh defensive units were able to repulse the broader offensive, although fighting continued well into the early evening in border areas along the north- and south-east. A third defining feature of the initial offensive was the Azerbaijani forces’ ability to seize and secure at least one and perhaps as many as four Armenian military positions in the area. By the end of the first day of fighting, the Armenian side also reported more than 100 wounded, largely from artillery bombardments. Armenian military sources also showed evidence of the destruction or capture of some 33 Azerbaijan tanks, 11 armored personnel carriers and, in another rare achievement, the downing of four helicopters as well as a number of UAVs. The coordination and logistical preparation necessary to conduct this expansive offensive demonstrated Azerbaijan’s improved capacity. Such preparation confirms that this latest round of fighting was a calculated and planned act of aggression. Beyond the surprise nature of the attack, Azerbaijan’s willingness to target civilian areas and population centers in Karabakh also demonstrates an apparent new disregard for the loss of civilian life. This may stem from the failure of the initial July offensive, which was quickly halted and decisively repulsed due to the tactical advantage of the defenders in terms of terrain and topography, and as a result of the quick loss of the tactical element of surprise in the location and intensity of the attack. From this perspective and based on Azerbaijani military performance in the past, local unit frustration and strategic failure on the ground have translated into a desperate and deadly reliance on artillery and rocket attacks on civilian areas that inflict damage with little or no real military value. External actors and factors Despite its localized nature with no foreign presence on the ground, the Karabakh conflict has the potential to morph into a much wider confrontation of competing interests of larger, more powerful regional actors including Russia, Turkey and Iran. For Russia, the Karabakh conflict offers the most effective leverage for maintaining its power and influence over both Armenia and Azerbaijan, especially as it now serves as the primary arms supplier to both sides. As a key external actor, Russia is now seen and generally accepted as having a legitimate interest in the conflict. That’s due mainly to its diplomatic engagement and initiative as a co-chairing nation, along with France and the United States, of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s (OSCE) “Minsk Group,” the sole diplomatic entity empowered to mediate. At the same time, the conflict is also a challenge for Russia, as it has only revealed and deepened the weakness and inherent limits of its “strategic partnership” and security alliance with Armenia. Beyond the Karabakh conflict, there has been a profound crisis in Armenian-Russian relations for several years. That stems from Armenia’s deepening dissatisfaction with the unequal terms of the relationship, marked by frustration with the asymmetry and disrespect afforded to its alliance and exacerbated by a sense of betrayal by Russia. While Azerbaijan looks to Russia and Israel for military equipment, it is Turkey – now engaged in proxy wars as far afield as Libya and Syria – that has taken a most active and assertive policy in response to the Karabakh conflict by forcefully backing Azerbaijan. Turkey’s vocal defense of fellow Turkic Azerbaijan is partially driven by a desire to regain its past role as Azerbaijan’s primary military patron that Russia and Israel now serve. The Turkish response to the latest eruption in violence was immediate and harsh, endorsing Azerbaijan’s version of events well before the state of affairs on the ground was determined. Diverging domestic drivers Every modern Azerbaijani leader up until the current President Aliyev has either risen to or fallen from power due to events on Karabakh’s battlefield. It thus follows that resorting to force and resuming war is a risky gambit for the Aliyev dynasty in Baku. Yet the use of military force and an appeal to nationalism by the Azerbaijani leadership has also served as a convenient, if temporary, distraction from domestic problems, as was the case with the 2016 fighting. On the other side, since a rare victory of non-violent people power in 2018, Armenia has emerged as a respected and legitimate democracy. Yet this has only exacerbated the divergence and divide between the two rival states. This divergence is evident in the very nature of the regime in Azerbaijan, whose political legitimacy is founded not on free and fair elections but rather derived from family tradition and genetics, with power passing from father-to-son through the rule of the Aliyev dynasty. Armenia and Karabakh now stand alone, with no partner for peace and little hope for sincere or serious negotiations with Azerbaijan. The imperative now is to focus on a back to basics diplomacy, aimed less at substantive peace talks and more on preventing a further escalation of renewed hostilities that threaten to lure in rival regional powers.
Councilmember Paul Kerkorian Statement on Azerbaijan’s Aggression
Azerbaijan's
Aggression Threatens the World
The
United States Needs to Stop It
By Paul Krekorian
Los Angeles City
Councilmember
Yet again, Azerbaijan’s military forces have launched a
deadly and unprovoked attack against its Armenian neighbors. Yet again, Azerbaijan’s recklessness puts
innocent civilian lives and fundamental United States interests at risk. And yet again, the Armenian people face a
genuine threat of the continuation of Turkish efforts to annihilate them.
Last night, Azeri tanks, helicopters and artillery attacked
the ethnically Armenian civilian population of Artsakh (formerly
Nagorno-Karabagh), including that country’s capital city, Stepanakert. This invasion follows the deadly attacks
Azerbaijan launched just two months ago against rural villages in Armenia. During a time when the UN has called for
ceasefire around the world due to the COVID pandemic, Azerbaijan instead is
renewing warfare, violating its ceasefire agreement with Armenia, and causing
death and destruction to the Armenian population that it so detests.
This reckless invasion is a direct threat not only to the
Armenian population of the region, but also to regional stability. Already, Turkish dictator Erdogan is
threatening Armenia and offering full support to the Azeri invasion. It is not hard to imagine that a full scale
war against a country that borders on Turkey, Russia and Iran presents a grave
danger to the world. Azerbaijan’s
actions create an immediate danger of escalation that would enflame a tinderbox
and severely damage US strategic interests in the region.
The corrupt Baku regime’s outrageous warmongering and racist
hatred of Armenians seems to know no limits.
This attack is just the latest in a consistent record of Azeri barbarity
directed at Armenians who just want to go about their lives in peace. The Azeris targeted Armenian civilians with
mass murder in the pogroms of 1988 and 1990.
They targeted Armenian civilians with indiscriminate shelling during
Artsakh’s war of independence. Twenty
years ago they destroyed a thousand year old Armenian cemetery at Julfa,
ignoring the pleas of UNESCO and desecrating tens of thousands of graves. They celebrated as a hero and rewarded the
Azeri soldier who beheaded an Armenian with an axe during a NATO “Partnership
for Peace” program in 2004. They
targeted Armenian civilian villages and committed shocking war crimes during
their 2016 invasion of Artsakh. And now
they are engaging in the same kinds of ruthless violence and abomination yet
again.
If that were not enough, the bellicose Azerbaijan government
recently threatened to launch a missile attack on a nuclear power plant,
releasing massive amounts of radiation only 20 miles from Yerevan. The spokesperson for the Azerbaijan Defense
Ministry today bragged about their capability of hitting the power plant, which
would, as he put it, “lead to a great disaster for Armenia.” This rhetoric is a continuation of
Azerbaijan’s repeated threats, including from its famously corrupt and
dictatorial president, to destroy and conquer all Armenian lands.
This outrageous and consistent pattern of aggression
completely shreds all international norms and notions of human decency. Worse, Azeri violence and threats carry with
them the echoes of generations of pan-Turkish commitment to erasing the
Armenian population and culture from the world.
The most dramatic manifestation of this lust for ethnic cleansing, of
course, was the Armenian Genocide in which Turks killed 1,500,000 Armenians
early in the Twentieth Century. But the
actions, statements and active preparations of Azerbaijan and its enabler
Turkey make clear that genocide is a genuine threat in our time as well.
The United States, France and Russia, as co-chairs of the
OSCE Minsk Group, have attempted for years to mediate a sustainable negotiated
peace, but those efforts have utterly failed.
Azerbaijan has consistently violated the ceasefire with scores of
attacks across the border, resulting in both civilian and military deaths in
both Armenia and Artsakh. The United
States nonetheless still refuses to state clearly that there is only one
perpetrator that continues to be responsible for the violence, bloodshed and
instability in the region, and that is Azerbaijan. Any statement of moral equivalence in the
face of continued massive violence, aggression and genocidal threats by the
government of Azerbaijan is entirely unacceptable. Our government has an
obligation to hold Baku accountable for Azerbaijan’s destruction of the peace
process and its ongoing crimes and threats.
Unless Azerbaijan immediately faces meaningful consequences
and international condemnation, there is little chance of achieving lasting
peace. The interests of the United
States will be harmed by instability in this vital region, and our reputation
in the international community will be irreparably damaged by our failure to
stand up and speak out on behalf of the victims of this inexcusable and
continuing record of Azeri aggression and violence. And if another slaughter of Armenians comes,
the nations who failed to stop it will have no excuse for their complicity.
I therefore call upon the United States government to
condemn Azerbaijan unequivocally for its latest violation of the ceasefire, and
to demand an immediate and permanent cessation of all Azeri hostile
action. I further call upon the Trump
Administration and the United States Congress to take immediate action to cease
all military support and cooperation with Azerbaijan, including suspending all
arms shipments to Azerbaijan. Finally, I
call upon the United States Department of State to utilize all diplomatic,
economic and political means to compel Azerbaijan to engage meaningfully in the
peace process, through the Minsk Group or otherwise, to achieve a sustainable,
lasting peace that ensures the sovereignty, territorial integrity and
independence of the Republic of Artsakh.
The California Courier Online, October 1, 2020
1 - Armenians Should Unite Against Turkey’s
And Azerbaijan’s Joint Attack on Artsakh
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Azerbaijan Reignites Attack on Artsakh Border, Killing
Soldiers and Civilians
3 - In SF, FBI Prepared to Investigate as Shots Fired at KZV School
4- CSUN Receives $3 Million Gift to Support Armenian Studies
5- USC Thornton Friends of Armenian Music Announces Scholarship Awards
6- Armenian Gov't Concerned About Coronavirus Resurgence
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1 - Armenians Should Unite Against Turkey’s
And Azerbaijan’s Joint Attack on Artsakh
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
A massive attack was launched against Artsakh by Azerbaijan with the
direct participation of Turkey and Islamic Jihadist mercenaries in the
early hours of Sept. 27, 2020.
The Azeri/Turkish side not only attacked Armenian military forces, but
also peaceful civilians in various villages and Stepanakert, the
capital of the Republic of Artsakh. Ominously, Turkish F-16 Air Force
jets operated in the war zone after several threatening remarks
against Armenia by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
As we write this article on Monday (Sept. 27), the battles continue.
We hope that France, Russia, and the United States will intervene and
stop the bloodshed. So far 370 Azeri soldiers, including
Lieutenant-Colonel Mehman Miraziz, have been killed. Mais Barkhudarov,
an Azeri Major General was wounded and captured by the Armenian
forces. In addition, 81 foreign Islamist Jihadist mercenaries have
been killed. Eighty four Armenian soldiers were killed and more than
100, mostly civilians, wounded. Turkey, which transported a large
number of these Islamist terrorists to Azerbaijan, has promised to pay
them thousands of dollars a month. It is embarrassing that Azerbaijan
and Turkey with their own huge militaries are too cowardly to use
their own soldiers and are importing mercenaries from Northern Syria.
Hopefully, these hired terrorists will suffer the same fate as the
Afghan Mujahideen and Chechen mercenaries who were brought to
Azerbaijan in the 1990’s to fight against the Armenian forces. Many of
them were killed in battle and the rest left Azerbaijan seeing the
cowardly behavior of Azeri soldiers. In addition, Armenian forces have
destroyed Azerbaijan’s four helicopters, 36 tanks and armored vehicles
and 27 drones, including those purchased from Israel and Turkey.
Russia and the United States issued statements calling for a ceasefire
and return to the negotiating table. Significantly, the U.S. State
Department announced that “participation in the escalating violence by
external parties would be deeply unhelpful and only exacerbate
regional tensions.” This was an indirect call to Turkey not to meddle
in the Artsakh conflict. However, the United States government should
go beyond mere words and sanction both Turkey and Azerbaijan by not
providing any weapons or foreign aid to either of them. In addition,
we are seeing the same meaningless statement urging both sides to
cease fire without condemning the party that started the attacks,
which is always Azerbaijan. I am certain that the United States and
Russia know full well who started the attacks.
I am sure most Armenians realize that at this critical time when the
lives of the populations of Armenia and Artsakh are at risk, they
should refrain from continuing their personal or partisan disputes.
This is no time to engage in internal disagreements. The priority is
to deter the common enemy. We should all rally around the government
of Armenia. Similarly, Diaspora Armenians should set aside their petty
disputes and join ranks. I know many Armenian-Americans have been
engaged in supporting the different candidates in the upcoming U.S.
presidential elections and Facebook is full of their heated comments.
I urge everyone to take a break from these political disputes and
rally around Armenia and Artsakh. We are facing much larger and more
powerful enemies, Azerbaijan and Turkey. Only our united effort and
smart tactics can protect us to avoid the reoccurrence of the
Genocide.
Even though I am not a military expert, I have some common sense
suggestions to Armenia’s leaders. This is not a partisan issue. I had
made the same suggestion to Armenia’s previous and current
governments, regrettably to no avail. I would like to remind our
political leaders in Armenia that they should immediately declare that
they will postpone all negotiations until such time that Azerbaijan
and Turkey stop firing on Armenia and Artsakh. How can one carry out
peaceful negotiations when the other side is holding a gun to your
head? Armenia should declare to the world that we are for peaceful
negotiations; however, it is not acceptable that Azerbaijan keeps
firing while supposedly negotiating. What kind of negotiation is that?
One can either fight or talk, but not do both at the same time. If the
negotiations are interrupted, Azerbaijan is the one that will be the
loser because that is the only way that it hopes to arrive at mutual
concessions. It is in Azerbaijan’s interest to stop firing and start
negotiating. The international community will only blame Azerbaijan
for the interruption of the peaceful negotiations. By not placing such
a reasonable condition on negotiations, Armenia is in fact is
encouraging Azerbaijan to continue firing on Armenia and Artsakh,
costing the lives of many young Armenian. No more negotiations unless
Azerbaijan stops these continuous attacks.
The other suggestion I have is that we should never tell the enemy
where we would or would not attack. After the spokesman of the Azeri
Defense Forces threatened in July that Azerbaijan could attack the
Armenian Nuclear power plant, I was dismayed to hear an Armenian
official state publicly that Armenia would never attack civilian
targets in Azerbaijan. There was no need to make such an announcement.
Let the enemy guess what you would or would not do in case of war. If
Armenia thought that by making such an announcement it will gain
praise from the international community, it is sadly mistaken. War is
not the time to play Mr. Nice Guy. The world respects only strength.
Rights and good behavior do not count. Let Azeris worry that Armenia
could attack their dams, pipelines, oil fields and civilian
populations. We do not need to announce whether we could attack such
targets or not. Azerbaijan had no hesitation attacking Stepanakert
this week, why should we announce that we have no interest in
retaliating on similar Azeri targets?
Finally, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan just announced that the
possibility of Armenia recognizing Artsakh’s independence is “on the
table and needs to be reviewed.” This is a welcome announcement.
Pashinyan already had announced in Stepanakert last year that “Artsakh
is Armenia, period.” The previous Armenian government had also
declared that if Azerbaijan attacks Artsakh, Armenia would then
recognize Artsakh’s independence. It is high time that Armenia take
such a decision which would be an appropriate response to the
Azeri/Turkish attack on Artsakh.
I urge all Armenians around the world to united and defend the
homeland in whatever way they can against its enemies, Azerbaijan and
Turkey.
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2- Azerbaijan Reignites Attack on Artsakh Border, Killing
Soldiers and Civilians
Early on the morning of Sunday, September 27, Azerbaijan’s military
attacked several positions along the Artsakh front; shelling was also
reported in Artsakh's capital Stepanakert for the first time since the
Artsakh Liberation War.
Turkey immediately supported the Azerbaijani attack, and reportedly
sent around 4,000 rebel fighters (of which 81 have been killed) from
Northern Syria to support Azerbaijan.
Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Artsakh President Arayik
Harutyunyan both declared martial law and general mobilizations in
Armenia and Artsakh.
Over 10,000 people contacted Armenia’s Ministry of Defense looking to
volunteer to be sent to the front. Several volunteer militias,
including from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, organized and
dispatched their own volunteers.
“As Commander in Chief, I have come today to say that I am ready to
die for the sake of our Motherland,” said Pashinyan. “We shall tell
the whole world that we are ready to die for our Motherland, we will
not cede a single millimeter of it. We shall win, we have no other
option.”
Pashinyan spoke by phone with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, and
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
said Moscow was following the situation very closely and that the
conflict had to be resolved through diplomacy.
As of Monday, September 28, the government of Artsakh had released the
names of 84 soldiers who were killed in the line of duty.
As of Monday, September 28, Armenian forces destroyed 27 drones, 4
helicopters, and 36 tank and infantry fighting vehicles. Ministry of
Defense spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan reported that there were 370
confirmed deaths on the Azerbaijani side.
Artsakh's Ombudsman Artak Beglaryan reported more than 100 wounded
civilians, as well as two civilian deaths in Artsakh.
The US Department of State urged “both sides to cease hostilities
immediately” and alluded to Turkey’s destabilizing role saying, “The
United States believes participation in the escalating violence by
external parties would be deeply unhelpful and only exacerbate
regional tensions.” The statement urged the sides to work with the
Minsk Group Co-Chairs to return to substantive negotiations as soon as
possible.
At an evening press briefing on September 27, President Donald Trump
said, "We're looking at it very strongly," he said. "We have a lot of
good relationships in that area. We'll see if we can stop it."
Following a previously scheduled meeting between the Catholicos of All
Armenians Karekin II and Pope Francis, the two issued a statement
stating that peace and stability can be reestablished only by
respecting the rights of Artsakh’s people and by ensuring justice.
Armenian websites, including the Asbarez Newspaper, were under
relentless cyber attacks by Azeri hackers.
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3 - In SF, FBI Prepared to Investigate as Shots Fired at KZV School
(Combined Sources)—Just over two months after being vandalized with
pro-Azerbaijani graffiti, San Francisco’s Krouzian-Zekarian
Vasbouragan Armenian school was again target of a pattern of hate
crimes, when the local police reported that shots were fired at the
school building over the weekend.
San Francisco police officers were patrolling the KZV Armenian School
at around 2:25 a.m. Saturday, September 18, when someone fired a
bullet that damaged the school’s sign. No one was injured by the
gunfire.
The officers were assigned to guard the Krouzian-Zekarian Vasbouragan
Armenian school after the campus was tagged with anti-Armenian
graffiti in July and the building adjacent to the St. Gregory the
Illuminator Armenian Church was set ablaze on Thursday. An arson
investigation is underway.
The officers immediately searched for the source of the gunshots, but
no suspects were located. They found a sign outside the school was
riddled with bullet holes. No one was injured in the shooting, police
said.
In a statement, the San Francisco Police Department said it had “taken
steps to increase the safety and security of the community.”
“However, we ask that the community remain alert and report anything
suspicious to the police,” the department said. “Investigators are
actively working to identify those responsible for the crimes and to
place them under arrest.”
Police said the officers who heard the gunshots near the school
Saturday “immediately searched for the source of the gunshots, but no
suspects were located.”
On Monday, September 21 a spokesperson for the FBI in San Francisco
said the agency was aware of the incidents and in “regular contact
with local authorities.”
“Should information come to light of a potential federal violation,
the FBI is prepared to investigate,” the agency said.
“We are more determined,” said Haig Baghdassarian of the Armenian
National Committee of America-Western Region. “We’ve gotten anecdotal
reports of individual community members having received
threats—Armenian-owned businesses and individuals.”
“I’m very upset and angry. I have a lot of nieces and nephews who come
here a lot of friends have kids who come here and this is getting
ridiculous,” said former student Saro Sarkisian. “I mean gunshots at a
school!”
“It’s reprehensible,” said Khatchig Tazian, a leader in the
Armenian-American community in San Francisco, who wants the FBI to
investigate.
“We would like to see federal help come into this. Because it is a
hate crime and it’s escalating as we speak,” said Tazian. “It started
with graffiti, then to arson, now it’s a shooting. The next one is
probably going to be somebody getting shot.”
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but several members
the Armenian-American community in San Francisco said they suspect it
has something to do with military tensions on Armenia’s border with
Azerbaijan.
Tazian said his community is offering a $25,000 reward for information
that leads to an arrest and conviction of those responsible for the
attacks. He is urging calm.
“We’ve been organized as a community for a long, long time. And we
don’t take bait like that. I’ll take this opportunity to remind
everybody in the Armenian-American community to just take a deep
breath and step back and make sure we don’t give into emotion and
don’t give into their violence. Because it will even escalate
further.”
Public officials including Gov. Gavin Newsom, Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, and Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, who
is of Armenian descent herself, have condemned the violence against
the community in recent weeks.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin called the arson incident
“an outrage” and an act of “cowardly, hateful, criminal conduct.”
Hate crimes against the Armenian community are tragically on the rise,
and must not be tolerated, Member of the House of Representatives Adam
Schiff said.
“This week’s shooting near the Krouzian-Zekarian-Vasbouragan Armenian
School in San Francisco marks the third incident of hateful violence
against the Armenian community in California just this month.
Thankfully there were no injuries or deaths,” Schiff said on Facebook.
“We all stand together to condemn these vile and hateful attacks
against the community,” the Congressman noted.
A GoFundMe campaign to help the church with repair costs can be found
at https://www.gofundme.com/f/san-francisco-armenian-church-amp-community-offices.
Anyone with information about any of the cases is asked to contact to
police’s 24-hour anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or to text a tip
to TIP411 with “SFPD” at the beginning of the message.
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4- CSUN Receives $3 Million Gift to Support Armenian Studies
California State University, Northridge has received an anonymous $3
million gift to support its Armenian Studies Program and provide
scholarships to students.
A large portion of the gift, $2.5 million, has been designated for
scholarships, which will be available to any student interested in
studying or working with the Armenian community through advocacy,
humanitarian, cultural or philanthropic work. The remainder of the
money has been earmarked to support activities within the program.
“This gift emphasizes the power that education has to build bridges
and provide opportunities for people to explore new communities and
cultures, in this instance the Armenian community,” said CSUN
President Dianne F. Harrison. “CSUN educates more Armenian students
than any other university in the world outside of Armenia. This gift
will strengthen an already strong program that provides a foundation
of knowledge about Armenian culture and the impact Armenians and
Armenian Americans have, not just in California, but throughout the
world.”
Vahram Shemmassian, head of CSUN’s Armenian Studies Program, called
the anonymous gift “amazing, and example that there is still good in
the world.”
“The gift’s emphasis on scholarships invites people to learn about a
culture and people they may not know about,” Shemmassian said. “The
gift encourages comparative studies and intellectual exploration. If
you are majoring in religion, you study Armenia’s religions. If you
are studying the Holocaust, you can also learn about the Armenian
Genocide. If you are interested in music or film, you can explore the
Armenian aspect of these things. This amazing gift is inclusive, not
exclusive, of people of all backgrounds, and underscores the power of
a positive education to transform people and expand their
understanding of the world around them.”
CSUN’s Vice President for University Relations and Advancement and
President of the CSUN Foundation Robert Gunsalus said, “The wonderful
and anonymous donors behind this gift were motivated by an
appreciation for the Armenian culture and community, and helping the
people of our region. We are deeply grateful that they chose CSUN as
the instrument to animate those passions.”
Gunsalus went on to say, “The many students who will benefit from this
generous gift will make a positive impact on exponentially more
people, a lasting and splendid legacy for the donors and a genuine
honor for the university.”
The $3 million is the second anonymous gift to CSUN’s Armenian Studies
Program in the past year.
In October 2019, CSUN officials announced an anonymous gift of $2.1
million to support the program and the efforts of the special
collections and archives unit of CSUN’s library to preserve the
archives of Armenian families that date back to the pre-World War I
Ottoman period, including letters, books, clothes and jewelry.
Shemmassian said the gifts are a reflection of the positive reputation
CSUN’s Armenian Studies Program has for serious scholarship and its
connection to the Armenian community. He said he has worked in
partnership with the university’s development officials, particularly
with Suren Seropian, director of development for the College of
Humanities, to ensure that the community is aware of the program and
all it has to offer.
“Our mission is to create an atmosphere of tolerance and appreciation
for all people, and to foster serious scholarship about Armenia and
its people,” he said.
CSUN’s Armenian Studies Program, established in 1983, promotes the
study of the language and culture of Armenia and Armenians, and helps
prepare the next generation of scholars in the field. The program
offers students support, workshops, public lectures and outreach
programs. Through their work, faculty, staff and students in the
program strive to contribute to the scholarly analysis and
understanding of the challenges the Armenian people have faced at
home, in the Near East and the Caucasus, and the in the Diaspora.
Additionally, the program has launched, in partnership with CSUN’s
Liberal Studies Program’s Integrated Teacher Education Program, an
effort to prepare future public and private school educators who have
the skills to teach Armenian language and culture.
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5- USC Thornton Friends Of Armenian Music Announces Scholarship Awards
LOS ANGELES—The USC Thornton Friends of Armenian Music announced the
recipients for the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 scholarships. Each year,
scholarship awards are presented to students of Armenian descent
enrolled n the USC Thornton School of Music.
Irene Sassounian, President of the USC Thornton Friends of Armenian
Music, reported that in 1984 the organization established the USC
Friends of Armenian Music Scholarship Fund, thanks to the generous
donation of the late Mrs. Arhag Dickranian. Additionally, the
scholarship endowments have been augmented with the Daughters of
Vartan, Helen Mardigian, Audrey Babakhanian Gregor, Anne Mills, Seda
Marootian and Rose Ketchoyan Scholarship Award Endowments.
The Board of Directors are proud to recognize the following recipients
of the scholarship awards. The amounts of the scholarships vary.
Sara Babikian, Clasical Guitar, received the USC Friends of Armenian
Music Scholarship; the USC Friends of Armenian Music Rose Ketchoyan
Endowed Scholarship, and the USC Friends of Armenian Music Seda
Marootian Endowed Scholarship.
Bardy Minassian, Classical Guitar, received the USC Friends of
Armenian Music Audrey Babakhanian Gregor Endowed Music Scholarship;
and the USC Friends of Armenian Music Daughters of Vartan Endowed
Scholarship.
Liza Monasebian, Vocal Arts, received the USC Friends of Armenian
Music Helen Mardigian Endowed Scholarship.
In past years, these talented Armenian musicians and singers would be
showcased and presented at major concerts, music lectures, seminars,
symposiums, and other ongoing projects. During these difficult and
uncertain times due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Board of Directors
has postponed events featuring these talented artists until there are
operational changes and fewer restrictions.
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6- Armenian Gov't Concerned About Coronavirus Resurgence
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan pledged to again step up the
enforcement of safety and hygiene rules on September 24 in response to
a resurgence in coronavirus infections in Armenia which began about
two weeks ago.
Pashinyan expressed concern over the “worsening of the situation”
after the Armenian health authorities said that 374 people had tested
positive for COVID-19 in the previous 24 hours, the highest daily
number of new cases recorded since the beginning of August.
The Ministry of Health registered between 239 and 295 cases a day last
week, up from an average of roughly 150 cases reported earlier in
September. The number of cases had declined steadily and significantly
since the first half of July.
The resurgence is not as sharp as it may seem given a near doubling of
the daily number of coronavirus tests carried out across Armenia over
the last two weeks. Even so, there has been an increase in the
percentage of positive test results.
“Our position remains the same: we have to live with the coronavirus
and a lot depends here on the individual responsibility of each of
us,” Pashinyan said.
“Of course, administrative methods must also be applied very strictly,
and we have agreed that inspecting bodies and the police will step up
their oversight of compliance with the rules,” he said.
Wearing face masks in all public spaces—both indoors and outdoors—has
been mandatory in Armenia since June. The government kept this and
social distancing restrictions, mostly applicable to businesses, in
place when it lifted a coronavirus-related state of emergency on
September 11.
Health Minister Arsen Torosyan said that the renewed rise in
coronavirus cases began right after September 11. Torosyan blamed it
on the increased mobility and complacency of the population. He warned
that the reopening on September 15 of Armenian schools and
universities could accelerate the upward trend.
“We do not yet attribute these [higher] figures to the schools because
the schools were reopened ten days ago,” Torosyan told Pashinyan and
fellow cabinet members. “But if there is a more drastic increase
within the next week we will link that to the schools.”
“We are not just talking about transmission [of the disease] inside
schools,” he went on. “The schools and other educational
establishments are one of the most important factors behind our
population’s mobility.”
The minister also assured Pashinyan that about one-third of some 1,400
hospital beds currently set aside for COVID-19 patients remain vacant.
He said the number of such beds can be quickly doubled if need be.
According to the Ministry of Health, there were 3,748 active
coronavirus cases in Armenia as of September 24. Torosyan’s remarks
suggest that fewer than 1,000 infected persons were hospitalized.
Two dozen Armenian hospitals dealt with COVID-19 at the height of the
coronavirus crisis in June and early July. Only eight of them have
COVID-19 patients at present.
As of Monday, September 28, the Ministry of Health has recorded 49,400
coronavirus cases and 951 deaths.
The number of active cases stood at 4836; 43,613 have recovered.
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with a few of the articles in this week's issue of The California
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requested to provide their names, addresses, and/or telephone numbers
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Information war cranks up as Azerbaijan & Armenia show more footage of alleged military victories in violent border flare-up
RT – Russia Today
Sept 28 2020
27 Sep, 2020
As Azerbaijan and Armenia lock horns on the battlefield over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, their media machines are rolling out videos, each purportedly showing the losses the opposing side suffered in Sunday’s clashes.
Azerbaijan has launched a military operation against the forces of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, an ethnic Armenian enclave that broke away from Azerbaijan three decades ago. The so-called “counter offensive” was allegedly launched in response to shelling of Azeri troops by Armenian forces. However, Yerevan has denied this and said it was Azerbaijan who broke the ceasefire.
Both parties reported military successes over the course of the day, while denying taking any casualties of their own in the process.
A video released by the Azeris, on Sunday evening, showed an apparent airstrike on a military vehicle. It also shows what appears to be a column of military vehicles on a dirt road, including one visibly damaged tank. The footage was filmed by a reconnaissance drone.
Meanwhile, the Armenian Defense Ministry published a video of an attack on a pair of infantry fighting vehicles, followed by what appears to be the aftermath of an ambush of a military convoy.
Both sides previously released similar footage of other episodes to demonstrate the cost of the conflict presumably paid by the rival side. The authenticity of the materials could not be independently verified.
Armenia turns to European Court of Human Rights in attempt to stop Azeri attack on disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region
RT – Russia Today
Sept 28 2020
27 Sep, 2020
Armenia asked the European Court of Human Rights (the ECHR), on Sunday afternoon, to pressure Azerbaijan into stopping its ongoing military operation against the long disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Azerbaijan is violating basic human rights by targeting the civilian population and infrastructure and using indiscriminate weapons, Yerevan argues. The ECHR can pressure Baku into halting the hostilities, Armenian authorities believe.
The request has been lodged with the Strasbourg-based court, the office of Armenia's representative at the ECHR said on Facebook.
The violence along the border of Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh, the overwhelmingly ethnic Armenian enclave that unilaterally split from Baku in the late 1980s, erupted on Sunday morning. Azeri troops launched a massive offensive operation, claiming it was done in response to the shelling of troops and villages under their control.
Armenia denied that the violence had been provoked by its ally and accused Baku of breaking a ceasefire. According to officials of the disputed region, at least 16 of its troops were killed and over 100 injured while fighting the Azeri advance. Both sides reported civilian deaths during the confrontation.
Trump on Nagorno-Karabakh Escalation: ‘We’ll See if We Can Stop it’
Sputnik
Sept 28 2020
© REUTERS / STRINGER
US
22:55 GMT 27.09.2020
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – US President Donald Trump says Washington is looking into what can be done to stop a flare-up of tensions in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan erupted along the region’s contact line on Sunday morning, with each side blaming the other for putting civilian lives in danger.
"We are looking at it very strongly. We have a lot of good relationships in that area, we’ll see if we can stop it," Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday.
The US State Department said in a Sunday statement addressing the Nagorno-Karabakh escalation that involvement of any external party would be "deeply unhelpful and only exacerbate regional tensions."
Washington urged the conflicting parties to cooperate with the Minsk Group co-chairs, which, aside from the US, includes France and Russia, with the aim to "return to substantive negotiations as soon as possible."
The contact line of the Nagorno-Karabakh region saw military escalation on early Sunday, with Armenia and Azerbaijan accusing each other of sparking the hostilities. Many international observers, including Russia, the UN and France, expressed their concern about the conflict, calling for a ceasefire, while Turkey expressed "full support" to Azerbaijan.
Armenia has lodged a request to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to make Azerbaijan halt what Yerevan describes as military operations against civilians in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The region has been the subject of dispute between Yerevan and Baku since the late 1980s, when the two nations were Soviet republics. Following the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 1994, the two sides have held peace talks mediated by the OSCE Minsk group.
Russia’s Putin tells Armenian PM Pashinyan that all military action in disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region should be halted
RT – Russia Today
Sept 28 2020
Russia's Putin tells Armenian PM Pashinyan that all military action in disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region should be halted
Vladimir Putin told Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, on Sunday, that all efforts should be undertaken to stop the further escalation of fighting in Yerevan's dispute with Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The Russian president said Moscow was concerned about the sudden eruption of violence and that he believes the immediate goal is to cease hostilities, the Kremlin said in a statement. The phone call between Putin and Pashinyan was made on the latter's initiative.
Earlier in the day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called both his Azeri and Armenian counterparts to express Moscow's concerns and urge them to step back from the conflict.
Speaking to Putin, Pashinyan stressed that third parties from outside of the region should not get involved in the situation, according to the Armenian side.
Pashinyan himself had earlier rebuked Turkey, a long-time ally of Azerbaijan, for interfering in the situation. Ankara voiced support for Baku in the unfolding stand-off and blamed Yerevan for the violence.
Hostilities between Azerbaijan and the ethnic Armenian Nagorno-Karabakh erupted after Azeri forces launched an offensive on Sunday morning. Baku said it was responding to shelling of its forces, but Yerevan rejected this justification, accusing its opponent of breaking a ceasefire.
The region, where the population is predominantly Armenian, broke away from Azerbaijan in the late 1980s, and relies on military and economic support from Yerevan. Amid the flareup, both Azerbaijan and Armenia imposed martial law and voiced their determination to fight on.
Russia is part of the mediation group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), working to tone down tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia and negotiate a peaceful resolution to their dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh. However, Moscow is also treaty bound to defend Yerevan via the CSTO, an Russian-led alternative to NATO.
Turkish lira hits record low after Azerbaijan-Armenia clashes erupt
AHVAL News
Sept 28 2020
Turkey’s lira hit an all-time low against the dollar after the country became embroiled in a latest regional conflict, this time between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
The lira fell 2.1 percent to 7.819 per dollar, taking losses this year to 24 percent. It traded weaker than 10 against the British pound, hitting double figures for the first time since the government wiped six zeroes off the currency in 2004
Turkey has deployed military hardware including F-16 fighter aircraft to Azerbaijan ahead of the latest military clashes with Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a majority Armenian region within Azerbaijan’s borders. The lira is also falling after financial institutions including Goldman Sachs said the time was not right to invest in emerging market currencies.
“The fear is that Turkey, whose economy is on its knees and is actively engaged in escalating conflicts in northern Syria, and with Greece in the Mediterranean, could get dragged into yet another regional conflict it can ill afford, either politically or economically,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at Oanda in Singapore, according to Bloomberg.
Turkey has deployed its military to fight Kurdish militants allied with the United States in Syria, sent its navy to protect drill ships near Greek islands in the eastern Mediterranean and is supplying military hardware and know-how to the government in Tripoli, Libya against an opposition army backed by Russia and Egypt.
The Turkish central bank unexpectedly increased its benchmark interest rate by 2 percentage points to 10.25 percent last week to help defend the lira, which investors have sold on concerns for economic instability as the government fuelled growth with a flood of cheap lending from state-run banks.
Turkey is an historical ally of Azerbaijan, with which it shares close cultural and language ties. The Azeri and Armenian militaries clashed on Sunday with Armenia saying it was responding to missile attacks from Azerbaijan. The two countries fought a war over the region in 1994. The conflict ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire, which the two countries have undermined by skirmishes on several occasions since.
International banks including Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank are taking a risk-off approach to high-yielding emerging market assets such as the lira, citing expected volatility over U.S. elections. Turkey suffered a currency crisis in 2018 and some investors are concerned that it will be repeated.
On Monday, Turkey's banking watchdog loosened banks' asset ratio requirements, in place since April to coerce banks into lending more to the economy and to buy government debt. The ratio was lowered to 90 percent from a previous 95 percent.
(This story was updated with latest lira price in the second paragraph, banking measures in last.)
Armenia and Azerbaijan: Decades-long bloody rivalry
RTC, Ireland
Sept 28 2020
Armenia and Azerbaijan, two ex-Soviet republics in the Caucasus, are locked in a decades-long territorial dispute with deadly fighting erupting on Sunday.
Here are the key issues surrounding their conflict.
Nagorno Karabakh
At the heart of the standoff between Yerevan and Baku is the contested Nagorno Karabakh region.
The Soviet authorities merged the predominantly ethnic Armenian territory with Azerbaijan in 1921.
After the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenian separatists seized it in a move supported by Yerevan.
An ensuing war left 30,000 dead and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes.
Despite a ceasefire mediated in 1994 by Russia, the United States and France, peace negotiations struggle to move forward and fighting erupts frequently.
The latest clashes on Sunday saw Azerbaijan and Armenian separatists accuse each other of igniting the fighting that left both sides with casualties, including civilians.
It followed a flare-up along the border in July which claimed the lives of 17 soldiers from both sides.
In April 2016, some 110 people were killed in the most serious fighting in years.
Revolts and dynasty
Armenia, a Christian country since the fourth century, has been rocked by political and economic instability since it gained independence from the former USSR.
The country's post-Soviet leadership repressed opposition to its rule, was accused of falsifying ballot results, and was largely beholden to the interests of Russia.
In the spring of 2018, mass street protests brought current Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to power. He has since cracked down on corruption and introduced popular judicial reforms.
Muslim-majority Azerbaijan, on the Caspian Sea, has been under the authoritarian grip of a single family since 1993.
Heydar Aliyev, a former officer of the Soviet security services, the KGB, ruled the country with an iron fist until October 2003. He handed over power to his son, Ilham, weeks before his death.
Like his father, Ilham has quashed all opposition to his rule and in 2017 made his wife, Mehriban, the country's first vice president.
Russia and Turkey
Turkey, with ambitions to be regional powerbroker in the Caucasus, has thrown its weight behind oil-rich and Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan.
Their alliance is fuelled by a mutual mistrust of Armenia, and Ankara routinely issues strongly worded statements in support of Baku's ambitions to reclaim Nagorno Karabakh.
Yerevan harbours hostility towards Turkey over the massacres of some 1.5 million Armenians by Turkey under the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
More than 30 countries have recognised the killings as genocide, though Ankara fiercely disputes the term.
Russia, which maintains close ties with Armenia, is the major powerbroker in the region. It leads the Collective Security Treaty Organisation military alliance of ex-Soviet countries that includes Armenia.
Yerevan relies on Russian support and military guarantees because its defence budget is overshadowed by Azerbaijan's spending on arms.
Oil and diaspora
Azerbaijan has recently begun leveraging oil revenues as part of a bid to overhaul its image in the West.
Baku has invested in massive sponsorship deals including with the Euro 2020 football championship, which was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Baku was due to host matches this year and Azerbaijan has held Formula 1 Grand Prix races since 2016.
Azerbaijan has also tried to pitch itself to European countries as an alternative energy supplier to Russia.
On the international stage, Armenia has a vast and influential diaspora that fled during the Ottoman-era repressions.
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian, the late singer Charles Aznavour, and pop star and actress Cher all trace their roots to Armenia.
Some have appointed themselves unofficial ambassadors, like Kardashian who has been outspoken on the issue of the Armenian genocide.