California Courier Online, June 8, 2026

Karapet Navasardian News
California
Courier Online, June 8, 2026

1- By Hook or by Crook: Pashinyan Secures

Another Five Years in Power

By Harut
Sassounian

TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- International Lawyer defending Samvel Karapetyan interviewed by Harut Sassounian

3- The Missing Mountain on the Stamp
4- Argam Ayvazyan’s Monumental Work on Nakhijevan Just Published in Yerevan
5- Armenia National Basketball Team to Face Ireland on June 27 in Los Angeles
6- Richard G. Hovannisian Library to be Established in Yerevan
7- Israel sent troops to Azerbaijan during Iran war as part of secret network across region – CNN

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1- By Hook or by Crook: Pashinyan Secures

Another Five Years in Power
By Harut Sassounian
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

Regrettably, another fraudulent parliamentary election took place in Armenia on June 7. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s party, Civil Contract, did everything possible, both legally and illegally, to win enough votes to reelect him Prime Minister for another five years.

Pashinyan violated many of Armenia’s election laws. He used the extensive resources of the government for his campaign, thus exploiting his position as Prime Minister. He ordered the arrests of hundreds of opposition members by falsely accusing them of election interference. He threatened to arrest the leaders of opposition parties, thereby violating the independence of the courts. He even repeated these threats during his victory speech on election day.

A year ago, Pashinyan ordered the arrest of prominent businessman Samvel Karapetyan, who, after being wrongly jailed for several months, is now under house arrest. Pashinyan thus deprived his main opposition challenger of the opportunity to campaign in the parliamentary elections.

The Prime Minister will probably have the Catholicos of Armenians arrested on trumped-up charges, thus continuing his vindictive attacks on the Armenian Apostolic Church. Under his orders, several high-ranking clergymen have been wrongly jailed for months, although two of them were recently transferred to house arrest.

Pashinyan also deprived tens of thousands of Artsakh Armenians, who have been citizens of Armenia for years, of their right to vote in the parliamentary elections, fearing that they would vote against his party.

When thousands of Armenian citizens living in Moscow decided to travel to Armenia to vote in the parliamentary elections, Pashinyan ordered their interception at Yerevan Airport and at the Georgia-Armenia border under the excuse of requiring them to serve 25 days of military training. This was, in fact, an obvious attempt to prevent Armenian citizens from exercising their right to vote.

After all that, around 50% (a little over 700,000 citizens) reportedly voted for Pashinyan’s party, ignoring his disastrous rule, which resulted in a devastating defeat in the 2020 war, with thousands of soldiers killed and many more wounded. He then allowed Azerbaijan to occupy all of Artsakh in 2023, after announcing in 2019 that “Artsakh is Armenia. Period.”

He ignored the plight of Artsakh Armenian leaders jailed in Baku, did not support the right of return of 120,000Artsakh Armenians to their homeland, and failed in his duty to liberate parts of the territory of the Republic of Armenia from Azeri occupation beginning in 2021 and 2022.

Pashinyan divided Armenia’s population into “blacks” and “whites,” meaning his supporters vs. non-supporters. He falsely blamed all of the country’s problems on former leaders, even though he has been the Prime Minister for eight years. He divided the Artsakhtsis and Hayastantsis and antagonized Diaspora Armenians.

His misdeeds continue. Since the 2020 war, he made every concession President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan has requested. He agreed to change Armenia’s constitution and is considering turning over the four former Azeri enclaves in Armenia to Azerbaijan.

The smaller opposition parties that did not have a realistic chance of surpassing the minimum required threshold of 4% should not have participated in the elections because 50% of their votes are going to be reallocated to Pashinyan’s party under Armenia’s eccentric election laws. The participation of sixteen political parties and two coalitions in the election is far too many for a small country like Armenia.

When only a fraction of the votes had been counted, Pashinyan prematurely announced on June 7 that he won the election, thereby pressuring the Central Election Commission to declare his party the winner. This constituted blatant interference in the electoral process.

Pashinyan managed to fool most Armenian voters by promising them a nonexistent peace. Aliyev is in no hurry to sign the peace treaty, since he expects to extract more concessions from Pashinyan. Even the White House meeting with Trump, Aliyev and Pashinyan on August 8 did not succeed in pressuring Azerbaijan’s leader to sign the treaty.

However, not everything is lost. Armenians have a second chance to rid themselves of Pashinyan. In the coming months, when he asks Armenians to approve or reject his — or more accurately, Aliyev’s — version of Armenia’s new constitution in a referendum, an all-out effort should be made to reject it, even though Pashinyan will do everything possible to secure its approval.

Since Aliyev has made the signing of the peace treaty conditional on the adoption of the new constitution, Pashinyan will be politically devastated if he fails to gain its approval. Even if he refuses to resign at that point, he will become the laughing stock of the Armenian nation, and his grand designs to accommodate Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s demands will evaporate.

Finally, for those who constantly tell those of us who are critical of Pashinyan that Armenian voters have spoken and we have no right to intervene in Armenia’s domestic affairs, here are my answers:

1)    I am not interfering in Armenia’s domestic affairs. I am simply exercising my right to express my opinion.
2)    As a journalist and a citizen living in a free country, I have the right to express my opinion on any subject, especially on critical issues involving Armenia.
3)    Why is it that when I give my opinion on events taking place in China, Ukraine, Russia, or Japan, no one tells me that I have no right to do so, but when I make a comment about my homeland, Pashinyan’s supporters try to silence me?
4)    As a dual citizen of Armenia, I have every right to express my opinion and become involved in Armenia’s internal affairs,
5)    Finally, the real problem Pashinyan’s supporters have is not whether I have the right to speak about Armenia, but the fact that I am criticizing Pashinyan. If I were praising him, none of his supporters would tell me that I had no right to do so.
Pashinyan’s supporters should be more alarmed by the actions of foreign leaders, including those of the United States, the European Union, and Russia, who interfered in Armenia’s elections.

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2- International Lawyer defending Samvel Karapetyan interviewed by Harut Sassounian

Exclusive
The California Courier
Harut Sassounian:  You are an international lawyer, you know better than me, there was no reason whatsoever to arrest your client, Mr. Samvel Karapetyan, with a fake accusation. Pashinyan, who is supposed to be a democratic leader, according to all Western sources, ordered the court and the police to arrest him. Such an order does not fall within his authority, since the courts are supposed to be independent in a democratic country.
Bob Amsterdam:  There’s an ongoing lawsuit to defend his rights. You know, there are ongoing hearings. Unfortunately, everything is somewhat at a standstill prior to the election. And, you know, there’s a clear understanding that once the election is over, these charges will either be dismissed or accelerate. Mr. Pashinyan is no Democrat. He is constantly violating the rule of law. His thugs are engaging in outrageous behavior. As you may be aware, we have one refugee from Artsakh who’s on a hunger strike in detention. We have another individual who had mental problems, who was wrongfully arrested for tearing down a Pashinyan poster, then committed suicide. I mean, it is outrageous. And in the meantime, Mr. Pashinyan attacks voters physically. He appears completely unbalanced, and the idea that this is the poster boy of the West is just an outrage, and I spoke about it today, and I speak about it every day. I’m ashamed of the West’s behavior in all of this. I mean, we can attack Mr. Putin, and we should. He’s making threats he shouldn’t be making. Russian disinformation exists, absolutely, but the West’s behavior is much more shocking than Russia’s, because you can expect certain things from Russia, but to see the West behave in the way it has with false polls, false reporting, over-reporting of election interference, never discussing the shortcomings of a leader who’s lost two wars, is determined to destroy the national church. I mean, the list of Pashinyan’s failings, I don’t have time to go into the list. And this seems ignored by the media in the West.
Harut Sassounian:  Before we return to Mr. Karapetyan, I just wrote an editorial today pointing out that no foreign country should interfere in Armenia’s domestic affairs, whether it’s Russia, the EU, or the U.S. And I also pointed out that in recent days and months, both Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Rubio, and President Trump himself last week, endorsed openly Pashinyan, which is a blatant interference in Armenia’s elections and domestic affairs. And yet we only hear about Russia interfering. We don’t hear anything about the EU, which held this conference in Yerevan last month and the endorsements by the top three leaders of the U.S. Those are also interference in Armenia’s domestic affairs, but we don’t hear a word about it.
Bob Amsterdam:  I don’t know if you’ve seen my white paper on EU interference, which is 150 pages, outlining how the EU is not only engaging in illegal interference, but they don’t even have the power under their own statute to do this. I mean, they’re acting illegally internally in terms of the EU. The behavior of the EU is so undemocratic in so many ways in terms of data protection, in terms of really restricting freedom of speech, and a documented pattern of election interference. And, you know, a bugbear for me has been that in the last three years, I’ve been working to defend children of Christ in Ukraine, where I defend the Ukrainian Orthodox Church against the Ukrainian government, and I’m doing my part, I hope, in helping defend the Armenian Apostolic Church against really unconstitutional and completely outlandish attacks by Pashinyan on the person of the Catholicos, as well as on the structure of the church.
Harut Sassounian:  Is the church also one of your clients?
Bob Amsterdam:  No, the church is not a formal client, but I have met with the Catholicos. I’ve met with His Holiness a number of times, and I’ve pledged my support of the church, and I speak out about it as often as I can, because, quite frankly, it is part of Pashinyan’s program to remove the leader of the church. Mr. Pashinyan will treat it as an endorsement of the removal of the Catholicos, if he wins. I mean, it’s completely outrageous. It’s a complete violation of European law, the European Convention of Human Rights, the constitution of Armenia, the special provisions of law in Armenia that protecting the church. But again, Mr. Pashinyan would take a vote for him as a vote against the church.
Harut Sassounian:  Absolutely. I know that Mr. Karapetyan is your client. Do you have any other clients in Armenia?
Bob Amsterdam:  I have no other clients. Mr. Karapetyan is my client. There is to Mr. Karapetyan nothing more holy and sacred than the church and his commitment to the church. And he certainly asked me, as part of what I do for him, to speak out forcefully for the church. He, as you know, was arrested on the 49th day after the death of his father. His father was a pillar of the church as well. And, you know, the whole situation, in terms of, you know, we have political prisoners in Baku, and it is unthinkable that we have political Christian political prisoners in Yerevan, which as you know, we have.
Harut Sassounian:  That’s correct. But after Karapetyan’s arrest and he was in jail for many months, then now he is under a lockdown, home arrest. How did that come about? Was this due to your and local lawyers’ intervention in court?
Bob Amsterdam:  Yes, it was. Firstly, I was privileged. I did act in court in Armenia for Mr. Karapetyan. It was a great privilege. And I can claim no credit for his release. His local team was more successful than I was in terms of getting him released. I want to say very publicly that the Armenian legal team is as good a group of legal counsel as you could find anywhere in the world. And I was deeply privileged to be part of the team. They had me speak to the court concerning human rights issues, and I jostled with the court for many hours over these issues, because I insisted that I was going to read into the court record, which I did, all of the statements of Mr. Pashinyan concerning His Holiness the Catholicos. And this was over strenuous objections from the judge, but I overcame them and managed to read in these statements and make, I thought, compelling arguments concerning the violations of the European Convention that were involved in the charges against Mr. Karapetyan, as you rightly point out, the misuse of the power of the executive to put forward these charges. And also on a personal level, Mr. Karapetyan, younger than me, but still not a young man, was held in court for months, unable to see his family, unable to go to church, really under severe restrictions. And what I’ll say about my client is he is all about his family. He’s all about his church. And this was very onerous for him. And I gave a speech about this a few days ago, and I said, you know, I’m an old lawyer. I’ve done this kind of work for almost 50 years. And it’s rare for me when I go to court or I go to jail, as I did to meet with my client, I’ve rarely met a man that’s been in jail, incarcerated for months, certainly someone of wealth, who was less phased by the prison and more focused on issues concerning the church and the country. It’s a testament to him and it’s part of the reason I speak out so aggressively on his behalf, because it is pretty rare in today’s society that you meet men of principle, men of character, men of Christ who take all of this religious philosophy and they don’t flaunt it. They don’t lecture people. They live it and they live that commitment. And I sat in a dungeon with him and had him asking a hundred questions about friends in trouble in the church, friends in trouble in other cells. I mean, he’s a man of tremendous character.
Harut Sassounian:  My next two questions, very short. I’m surprised that they’re allowing you to address the court. I don’t think you’re a registered lawyer in Armenia. How did that happen?
Bob Amsterdam:  Well, you are, right. It was a type of registration they give out very rarely, but they gave it to me, and I think it’s simply because I’m old. They probably thought it would be a nice thing to do to an old man. So, really, it was a great honor. I’ve worked on political cases in the CIS all my life, and honestly, from my memory, while I’ve appeared in various tribunals in Russia, I never remember being able to directly address a judge until I was in Armenia. It was really a privilege.
Harut Sassounian:  Well, that’s great. The second short question is, in recent years, anybody who criticizes Pashinyan, if they’re local people, then they’re arrested, tried, and jailed, etc. And even those of us who live outside of Armenia and criticize him, many of us are on a blacklist, not allowed to enter Armenia. I was a little bit intrigued that they’re allowing you, with all your activities in complaining about Pashinyan’s various violations, that they’re allowing you free entry to Armenia.
Bob Amsterdam:  Well, I’ve been surprised as well. And in fact, I first met the Catholicos in New York, by now I guess it’s quite a while ago, and there had been a newspaper article stating that I was to be banned from the country. And I viewed it as fake news and decided to travel myself. I, unfortunately, because of the nature of my history of work, I’m banned from seven or eight countries. I was arrested in Moscow for defending Khodorkovsky. I was deported from Moscow. And I’ve been arrested in a number of other countries. And nothing would surprise me.
Harut Sassounian:  Okay, well, it’s good to hear, but the worst may yet to come. I also recently saw that you filed a lawsuit against the Speaker of the Assembly, Alan Simonian. Is that correct?
Bob Amsterdam:  No, I threatened a lawsuit, but they were, and let me tell you, it’s quite interesting. I was told about three weeks ago by a friend of mine that he had been offered a very lucrative contract to defame me, to spread false news about me. And he said, look, I declined, but they’re coming after you. And then sure enough, a few days later, there were all sorts of commentary about me having a relationship to Mr. Epstein. And what had happened with Mr. Epstein was he had a sum of money that belonged to a potential African client of mine. And I met with him 10 years ago. No one really knew about who he was or what he was, other than he was wealthy and fabulously connected, and he was, in fact, holding this individual’s money. So I was asked to meet him, which I did. In the meeting, we discussed this African client, and then he raised the issue of his problems in Florida. And, you know, to be very frank, I said to him that it was not an area, sex crimes was not an area that I practiced in. And that I had young women, children, daughters, and this was just nothing I would ever consider, thank you very much. And left. And to be fair, I think I’m one of the few that has declined the guy, because a lot of very senior lawyers took him on. So after I declined him, nothing came of it until they published that, you know, there had been some exchange of letters relating to another client. And then Pashinyan turns this into me allegedly acting for the guy. And then, amazingly, the Azeri press has picked it up, I think on the direct request of the Pashinyan people. And it just shows you how closely they’re working together.
Harut Sassounian:  Going back to Mr. Karapetyan’s case, I’m not a lawyer, but I’ve been following as an investigative journalist the European Court of Human Rights [ECHR] for the past 30-40 years. And I know a lot about the procedures. And at some point I read an article mentioning that you have taken the Karapetyan’s case to the European Court of Human Rights. Is that correct?
Bob Amsterdam:  No, it’s not. We have not taken, I have not, another lawyer, I believe, has raised some issues at the ECHR relating to pretrial detention. But I have not. And I don’t want to get into the details of it because it’s another lawyer that’s been acting.
Harut Sassounian:  Isn’t that a good idea? I know the requirements, you have to go to a local court, which you already have, and then go to the Court of Appeals locally, and then if they’re denied both places, then you can go to the European Court. Is that something to consider and file on an emergency basis?
Bob Amsterdam:  Firstly, nothing gets done at the ECHR on an emergency basis. I was involved in a tragic case of a young Armenian lawyer that I was one of the lawyers trying to assist with, who had been brutally treated by the Putin regime. And he had AIDS, he was denied medicine. It was a terrible case. And we only got him out, I think, after the fourth try before the emergency procedure, when he was already dying. Emergency procedures are not available under Rule 39. Extraordinary difficult to get. And if you don’t get the emergency procedure, unless you’re given, there’s a new structure now, but even with the new structure, and if you get a speedy hearing, it still takes a tremendous amount of time. But there is a proceeding, I believe, relating to pretrial detention, but it’s not in our hands, and I wanna be cautious commenting on the activities of another lawyer.
Harut Sassounian:  Okay. The lawyer you mentioned in Russia, I think you said an Armenian lawyer in Russia. Yes. When was this? I’ve never heard of this case.
Bob Amsterdam:  It’s a case involving Yukos Oil. It was a very big case 20 years ago in Russia that I was involved in. I was acting for the owner of Yukos, an individual named Mikhail Khodorovsky, and his general counsel, a very brave, heroic young Armenian lawyer, was basically tortured by the Russians because he would not fabricate evidence against Khodorovsky.
Harut Sassounian:  Do you remember Armenian lawyer’s last name?
Bob Amsterdam:  Not off the top of my head. It’s been 20 years. Well, I should know it. It’s a famous case. But I’ll check. I mean, he was a friend of mine. And it was a terrible tragedy, and what he went through, no animals should live through. His name was Vasily Alexanian.
Harut Sassounian:  I will look into it, and it sounds very interesting and, of course, tragic at the same time.
Bob Amsterdam:  I mean, he was a Russian lawyer of Armenian descent. And as you know, Moscow has a massive two million Armenians, something incredible.
Harut Sassounian:  That’s correct. So where are we now on the legal case of Mr. Karapetyan. He is under house arrest Has there been an appeal filed to get him out?
Bob Amsterdam:  There are appeals pending. There are processes pending. But Pashinyan has won to the extent that he’s forced Karapetyan, a political rival, to stay at his home during an election. As you know, in Armenia, elections are often decided by face-to-face campaigning. And Mr. Karapetyan has had both hands and his legs tied behind his back. His nephew, Narek Karapetyan, has been working 24/7, doing everything he can to assist and will, in fact, does in fact, lead the ticket. Narek himself is a very successful and wildly intelligent businessman. Again, very devoted to the church, very devoted to the country, and is a superb candidate. And Narek has been accused and defamed. They have tried to argue that he is a Russian national, which he is not. And they’ve thrown everything at him. And they’ve thrown everything at “Strong Armenia.” I expect, I think there was a raid today on “Strong Armenia.” I expect more absolutely bogus charges to come up until the election because I truly believe Pashinyan knows his days are numbered.
Harut Sassounian:  Is there a local legal team defending the accusations against Narek, or are you involved in it?
Bob Amsterdam:  No, no, there are no formal, to my knowledge, there are no formal charges. I think there’s an investigation of sorts, but I think Narek has made it very clear that there’s no basis for these allegations of Russian citizenship.
Harut Sassounian:  It’s the same sad story. They accuse everybody. They make fake recordings. They’ve put in jail dozens of people from opposition parties supposedly for paying bribes for potential voters. I wrote in my column last week that who would be foolish enough to pay a bribe to anybody — the first arrest was a couple of months ago, which is months before the election. Even if I were to think about paying a bribe, I wouldn’t pay a bribe three months in advance, not knowing what that guy will do three months later. It’s so far-fetched, preposterous, the accusation, and then not a single person from Pashinyan’s party is arrested for offering a bribe to anybody. I’m sure they’re doing a lot of those things. They violate the election laws in Armenia. They bring out children from school and teachers during the day when they’re supposed to be in school and no action is taken against his party. I remember three years ago, when there was an election for mayor of Yerevan, there was an investigation done by a very good investigative team in Armenia. And they found out that a lot of the campaign donations were made under fake names, and that they traced it down to the real person whose money was used, and that was presented to the court, but the court refused to take action on this blatant violation of election laws. So that’s the world we’re living in, unfortunately, and the EU and the US, for their own self-interest, not for Armenia’s interest, are blindly defending Pashinyan because they’re….
Bob Amsterdam:  I’ve been involved in many, many elections. I’ve never seen one which was conducted over the heads of the people of the country. There is no question — the EU does not give a damn about Armenia. They are viewing this as a contest of strength with Russia. And what I say to people, day in and day out, is could you please look at a map before you suggest that that schmuck Pashinyan invites Zelensky to Armenia? Look at a map. Why would you infuriate Putin? I’m not saying that you favor Russia. I’m saying have a multipolar foreign policy, but there’s no reason to antagonize them needlessly. Russia is basically a major power. Why would you do that? That’s like inviting Hillary Clinton to address something in Armenia. They wouldn’t invite Hillary Clinton. Don’t invite Zelensky. It’s ridiculous.
Harut Sassounian:  And then, again, Pashinyan, schmuck is a friendly term for the way he behaves. He has the temerity to have the leader of Azerbaijan address the EU conference in Yerevan and demand that they come to Baku for their next little soiree. And Pashinyan was silent when Aliyev was making that public accusation in front of all the European leaders, but he is very quick to attack one of his own Armenian citizens whenever they criticize him, but never a word to criticize Aliyev or Erdogan.
Bob Amsterdam:  Well, let’s be very clear. I have, again, and I’ve only been doing this for 50 years, I cannot believe that Pashinyan does not even pretend to act on behalf of the hostages in Baku. Every time I go to Armenia, I tell people, I’m ashamed of them. I say, where are the pictures of the hostages held in Baku? Where are they? Israel had hostages. You could not go anywhere without seeing pictures of the hostages. Armenia has hostages. You can’t see a picture of them. And these people are left to fight for themselves. And as you know, Ruben issued a very strong statement a few days ago, all but condemning Pashinyan, in fact, condemning Pashinyan. And again, the West says nothing. The West does nothing. And we allow this macabre game to go on where the head of state, who has a constitutional duty to protect his citizens, keeps them imprisoned because he’s afraid of what would happen if they came out, because they would spill the beans on his behavior.
Harut Sassounian:  Well, that’s why it’s not just worse than doing nothing to release them. He said and done things to make sure that they get convicted by the Baku court. I remember a couple of years ago at a press conference, Pashinyan, without even being asked a question by a journalist, he volunteered the following words. He said, who sent Vardanyan to Nagorno-Karabakh? What was the purpose? What was the mission? Why was he sent? So he’s giving ammunition to the court as if they needed more ammunition to put all the people in prison.
Bob Amsterdam:  And as you know, that was not a court. That was a military tribunal that had no right to try Ruben. So it’s really just outrage upon outrage.
Harut Sassounian:  Well, I know you’ve had a very busy and long day, and I appreciate very much that you made the time to speak with me.

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3- The Missing Mountain on the Stamp

By Melinda Andonyan,
Keghart

Sometimes the smallest absences make people think the most. During my recent visit to Armenia, a small yet striking detail caught my attention at passport control. Something was missing from the stamp on my passport. Or rather, a familiar symbol was absent: Mount Ararat — that ancient silhouette Armenians have called Ararat for centuries.

I had heard about this change. I had read in the news that Mount Ararat had been removed from its symbolic place on Armenian passport stamps. But there is a profound distance between hearing about something and witnessing it firsthand. Only when you see it with your own eyes  you do truly grasp the reality of an absence.

My first reaction was to find it somewhat absurd, because there is an undeniable geographical reality at the center of this issue. Yes, Ararat lies within the borders of Türkiye today. The boundaries drawn by geography are clear, and maps show this openly. To deny it would be to turn one’s eyes away from reality. Yet the issue was never really about which political borders the mountain belongs to. The real question is the meaning a mountain carries within the memory of a people. Does a mountain belong only to the land on which it stands? Or does it also belong to the eyes that look upon it every morning, to the memories that carry it into songs, prayers, and stories?
Some geographical formations are not merely stone, soil, and elevation. They are also memory. Silent yet powerful witnesses. For centuries, they have observed the joys, sorrows, migrations, and returns of peoples. People change, cities change, borders change; yet some mountains continue to stand with the same dignity. Ararat is one of them.

That majestic silhouette emerging in the morning light in Yerevan is not merely a landscape. It is a memory that reminds the observer of itself. Something seen through a window, yet felt not only with the eyes but somewhere deep within the human soul.

One cannot help but ask: What purpose does removing this symbol from official stamps serve? What can truly change by removing a symbol? If the existence of a mountain does not disappear when its image is erased, then for those who begin each morning by looking toward it, what exactly is diminished by removing its silhouette from a passport stamp? Does it reduce its visibility? Does it weaken its place in memory? Or does it merely reveal that even symbols can become victims of the subtle calculations of politics?

Trying to render certain things invisible does not make them disappear. On the contrary, their absence often makes them even more visible. A trace that has been erased can sometimes make itself felt even more strongly through the emptiness it leaves behind.

Perhaps this is the strongest aspect of memory. It may be removed from official documents, erased from records, and symbols may change — yet the images rooted in the human inner world continue to endure independently of all that.
You may remove Ararat from a stamp. You may erase it from official documents. But you cannot erase it from the horizon. You cannot remove it from the eyes of those who see it every day, from the memories of those who grew up gazing at its silhouette, or from the hearts of those who carry it as a longing, a silence, or a prayer. Because sometimes a mountain is not merely a mountain.

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5- Armenia National Basketball Team to Face Ireland on June 27 in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — The Armenia National Basketball Team will return to Los Angeles on Saturday, June 27 to take on Ireland in an international exhibition game at California State University, Los Angeles. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. as part of the annual Los Angeles International Basketball Classic.
The matchup marks another major international event for Armenian Basketball in Southern California, continuing the program’s growing presence in the United States and its mission to unite the Armenian community through basketball.
Armenia is led by Head Coach Rex Kalamian, currently an assistant coach in the NBA, featuring a roster made up of professional players competing internationally and in the United States.

Over the past several years, Armenia Basketball’s Los Angeles events have drawn thousands of fans and generated millions of social media impressions, establishing the games as one of the premier annual Armenian sporting events in California.

“This game represents much more than basketball,” said Kalamian. “It’s about bringing the Armenian community together, inspiring the next generation, and continuing to grow the sport of basketball for Armenians around the world.”

Fans can expect a high-energy international basketball experience featuring top-level competition, live Armenian entertainment, and a passionate crowd atmosphere at CSULA.

6- Richard G. Hovannisian Library to be Established in Yerevan
Global Fundraising Campaign Has Been Launched
YEREVAN — A global fundraising campaign has been launched to support the creation of the Richard G. Hovannisian Library in the heart of Yerevan. Dedicated to honoring and extending the monumental legacy of the late Professor Hovannisian–a titan of modern Armenian History–the library will permanently house the unparalleled collection of more than 10,000 books and volumes he amassed over his lifetime. 
Born to Armenian Genocide survivors in California’s San Joaquin Valley, Hovannisian set out on a life’s journey to pioneer the field of Armenian Studies in the United States and across the world. He founded and held the AEF Chair in Modern Armenian History, later renamed in his honor, at UCLA. He wrote the four-volume masterpiece, “The Republic of Armenia.”
Hovannisian preserved the history of the Armenian Genocide through several more books and a comprehensive oral history collection, which now resides at USC’s Shoah Foundation. His series of conferences on the historic Armenian cities and provinces also became books, wherein the lost history, culture, and spirit of Western Armenia are forever preserved.
The Richard G. Hovannisian Library is envisaged as a world-class cultural and intellectual space. Work is already well underway on the ground in Yerevan, where specialists and catalogers are meticulously indexing the vast archival collection. By the end of this year, these volumes will be integrated into a beautifully designed facility featuring custom, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.
The space will serve as a dynamic center for the study and advancement of Armenian and regional studies, inspiring a new generation of scholars, thinkers, and leaders through a year-round calendar of panels, symposia, and educational programming. 
While the Hovannisian family, together with several allied Armenian institutions, has borne the lion’s share of the initial project and construction costs, a global campaign has been launched to bring this history-in-the-making across the finish line, funding the final outfitting of the space, ongoing archival work, and future programming. 
“We hope to build, in my grandfather’s name, a library that will not only perpetuate his legacy, but that will allow new generations of Armenians to discover the riches of our past and to be inspired and propelled toward our future,” said Garin Hovannisian, Founder of Creative Armenia, which is helping implement the project on the ground in Yerevan.
To make a tax-deductible contribution to the campaign, please visit the official donation portal at the Creative Armenia website.
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7- Israel sent troops to Azerbaijan during Iran war as part of secret network across region – CNN

Armenpress

The forces operated out of several locations in southern Azerbaijan, two of the sources told CNN, adjacent to Iran’s northern border and, at its closest point, only about 60 miles from the Iranian city of Tabriz, which Israel struck during the war.

Special commando units were also deployed to the location and carried out intelligence-gathering missions and drone operations, the other two sources said, giving Israel a valuable perch from which to see into northern Iran during the war.

The secret deployment to Azerbaijan, reported by CNN for the first time, was one of several military positions Israel maintained across the Middle East that gave its military unprecedented reach, highlighting the role Iran’s neighbors played — some with permission, some likely without — in facilitating operations against Tehran and becoming entangled in the conflict.

The locations in Azerbaijan were among numerous covert military sites and bases in multiple countries, the sources told CNN, including in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and Somaliland. The forces, initially planned as potential rescue teams in the event of an emergency, expanded in scope to become military and intelligence gathering positions.

Together, the deployments described by the sources placed Israeli forces along Iran’s southern, western, and northern periphery during the war, extending the military’s range by hundreds of miles, deep into Iranian territory. The forward positions helped Israel sustain repeated waves of strikes against targets across the country.

The Azerbaijan operation consisted of several dozen troops, including members of Israel’s special operations forces, its elite heliborne combat and rescue force, and Mossad personnel, one of the sources said.

A spokesperson for the Azerbaijani embassy in the United States said in a statement to CNN, “We firmly reject unfounded claims regarding the alleged use of Azerbaijan’s territory for operations against third countries.”

CNN has reached out to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and Israel Defense Forces for comment.

Meanwhile, the breakaway republic of Somaliland on the Horn of Africa provided Israel with an additional military position, one of the sources said, allowing Israeli aircraft a point to potentially stop on long-range flights to Iran. In December, Israel became the first country to formally recognize Somaliland, and the UAE maintains an expansive commercial and military presence in the port city of Berbera.

The Israeli military also maintained two secret facilities in Iraq during part of the war with Iran, providing Israel with forward bases for logistics support and, if needed, search and rescue operations. The two sites in Iraq were first reported by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. In a statement, Iraq’s military said there were no “unauthorized bases or forces” in the country as of early March.

The military presence in Azerbaijan gave Israel another base from which to conduct aerial rescue missions in case of downed pilots as well as positions from which to spy on Iran.

Israel has long viewed Azerbaijan as a strategic partner in its fight against Iran, and the preparations began weeks before the opening strikes of the war. In mid-January, as Iran crushed wide-scale protests with the mass killing of demonstrators, Israel prepared a covert mission along the Azerbaijan-Iran border, two of the sources familiar with the plans told CNN. The sources described it as a preliminary operation laying the groundwork for additional steps by installing listening devices and intelligence equipment in the area.

Israel was planning to execute the operation under cover of what were to be the opening strikes of the war in mid-January. But US President Donald Trump called off the strikes at the last minute, saying that Iran had agreed to stop the killing of demonstrators.

Israel proceeded on its own. The Israeli Air Force used stealth jets and special forces as part of the operation to install the devices, as Israel’s political leadership believed negotiations between the US and Iran were doomed to fail. The intelligence-gathering site became another means by which Israel could collect information on Iranian military movements and facilities, as well as potentially providing early warning of missile launches.

Less than two weeks later, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar visited Baku, meeting with the Azerbaijani president and other top officials. In May 2025, Azerbaijan also secretly hosted rare direct talks between Israel and Syria.

One of the key operations launched from Azerbaijan, one of the sources said, was the killing on March 4 of Rahman Moghaddam, who led the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) intelligence division and who Israel said was responsible for planning an assassination attempt against Trump in 2024. One day later, drones struck an airport in Azerbaijan’s enclave of Nakhchivan, damaging a terminal building and wounding several people. President Ilham Aliyev blamed Iran, calling it “an act of terror” that was “ugly, cowardly and shameless.” Iran denied launching the drones.

On March 6, Azerbaijan’s State Security Service announced that it had broken up an IRGC plot to attack critical infrastructure, as well as Israeli and Jewish targets. Weeks later, Israel publicly acknowledged that it was a joint operation, involving the Mossad, Israeli military, and Shin Bet security service.

Israel and Azerbaijan maintain close ties around commercial and military interests. Baku provides Israel with a large share of its oil. In return, Israel sells Azerbaijan advanced weaponry, some of which were used in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts in 2016 and 2020 against Armenia, CNN reported.

Azerbaijan was also the first foreign country to purchase Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defense system in 2016.Israel secretly deployed elite military and intelligence units to Azerbaijan during the war with Iran as part of a network of covert sites across the Middle East to facilitate operations against Iran, CNN reported citing four sources familiar with the matter.

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