Author: Antranik Varosian

More than 93 percent of the Congressional candidates backed by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) prevailed in Tuesday’s hard-fought elections, as U.S. voters elected Donald Trump President and maintained Republican majorities in the Senate and House.

“We congratulate Donald Trump on his victory, commend Secretary Clinton on a hard-fought campaign, and thank Armenian American voters who went to the polls in record numbers to back federal, state, and local candidates who champion issues of special concern to our community,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.  “We look forward to getting to work right away in engaging with the Trump Administration and the incoming Congress to make progress on the full range of the Armenian American community’s public policy priorities.”

“We were greatly gratified to see such a large percentage of our Congressional endorsees win their races, including powerful advocates such as Maryland Senator Elect Chris Van Hollen, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, Representatives Adam Schiff, Frank Pallone, David Valadao, Jackie Speier, and many others.”

On the Senate side, 7 out of 11 ANCA endorsed candidates emerged victorious, including Senior New York Senator Charles Schumer, a long-time advocate of Armenian Genocide justice, who is slated to replace the retiring Harry Reid (D-NV) as Senate Democratic Leader.  Also re-elected were Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), a strong supporter of demining efforts in Nagorno Karabakh and Foreign Affairs Committee member Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-AZ), who were instrumental in Committee passage of Armenian Genocide legislation in 2014.  Also winning re-election were Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Michael Bennett (D-CO).  Long-time Armenian American issues advocate, Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D), will succeed retiring Senator Barbara Mikulski.  Illinois Senator Mark Kirk (R), a champion on U.S. assistance to Artsakh and Armenia and a lead sponsor of Armenian Genocide legislation lost a hard-fought re-election bid to challenger Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D).  Other ANCA endorsed Senate candidates who were unsuccessful in their Senate election bids were Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Rep. Joe Heck (R-NV) and former Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI).

On the House side, the ANCA endorsed 122 candidates, of which only 5 were reported to have lost their election bids. Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chairs Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Jackie Speier (D-CA) and David Valadao (R-CA) won their elections comfortably, while Illinois Congressman Robert Dold (R) lost re-election in a tightly contested race. Armenian Caucus Vice-Chairs Adam Schiff (D-CA) and David Trott (R-MI) won re-election handily.

The two Armenian American Members of Congress – California Democrats Anna Eshoo and Jackie Speier – each won broad support of the electorate, but Republican Danny Tarkanian, who sought election in Nevada’s third Congressional district fell short by 1%.

Among the key House races that the ANCA was following throughout the evening included House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), House Appropriations Committee Ranking Democrat Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Armed Services Committee Ranking Democrat Adam Smith (D-WA), all of whom emerged victorious. Other important House races included House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Democrat Eliot Engel (D-NY), lead authors of the Royce-Engel Karabakh peace initiative, and Committee members Chris Smith (R-NJ), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), David Cicilline (D-RI), Karen Bass (D-CA), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Lois Frankel (D-FL), Albio Sires (D-NJ), Grace Meng (D-NY) and Daniel Donovan (R-NY) – all of whom won re-election.

Among the House races in which ANCA endorsed candidates were not successful were those involving New Jersey Republican Scott Garrett, Nevada Republican Cresent Hardy, and Florida Republican John Mica.

Unprecedented Armenian American Community and Campaign Outreach:

In over 30 states and hundreds of Congressional Districts across the United States in which the ANCA endorsed candidates ran, the ANCA sent hundreds of thousands of customized e-mail messages and shared specialized social media posts with Armenian American voters. These messages featured the ANCA grade for each candidate, news about whether the ANCA has endorsed their campaign, and a listing of ANCA records and ratings for their state’s full Congressional delegation.

The ANCA’s final push built upon months of voter registration campaigns and community education and empowerment programs – led with the remarkably successful ANCA Western Region Hye Votes campaign. ANCA regional and local activists volunteered on campaigns and encouraged candidates to fill out the ANCA Candidate Questionnaire.

A key element of this effort, as in years past, has been ANCA Congressional Report Cards, a detailed review and rating of the records of each Congressional incumbent on more than a dozen individual legislative initiatives of special concern to Armenian American voters.

Photo by Ali Fawaz

Lebanon’s parliament elected former army commander Michel Aoun as president on Monday, filling a post that had been vacant for more than two years and injecting hope that the country’s long-running political paralysis would come to an end, the Associated Pess reprts.

Aoun, a Maronite Christian, enjoys a wide base of support among Lebanon’s educated Christians.

Aoun secured a simple majority of votes in parliament after a tension-filled, chaotic session that saw several rounds of voting because extra ballots appeared in the ballot box each time. In the end, the transparent box was placed in the middle of Parliament, where lawmakers cast their votes in front of two witnesses who watched to make sure no extra ballots were put in.

“We haven’t voted in a long time. We’re learning again,” Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri joked of the nearly two-hour process.

In the end, Aoun garnered 83 votes out of 127 lawmakers present at the session. He had been widely expected to achieve a two-thirds majority in the first round, but failed by two votes.

Members of parliament broke out in applause after Aoun was finally declared president. His supporters across the country erupted in cheers as they watched the proceedings on screens set up in the streets. Celebratory gunfire could also be heard in the capital.

Today, at the Meridian exhibition center in Yerevan President Serzh Sargsyan was present at the Conference of the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO), which along with over 80 participants – representatives of the jewellery making and precious metal processing area from 25 countries of the world was also attended by the President of CIBJO Gaetano Cavalieri. The President of Armenia addressed the participants of the Conference.

Remarks by President Serzh Sargsyan at the Conference of the World Jewellery Confederation

Distinguished Mr. Cavalieri,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to greet you warmly and welcome to the Republic of Armenia. We are delighted to host a conference of the unique world parliament which regulates your area – the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO). We attach great importance to the convening of the Conference in our country.

Armenia and Armenians spread all over the world have made a great contribution to the development of jewellery and stone processing and have obtained their constant place in the chronology of the industry. Successful works of the Armenian jewellers, their activities in different countries of the world gave a boost to the entire industry; they established jewellery production and jewellery stores in New York and Paris, Moscow and London, Constantinople and Beirut, Cairo and many other places. They have created brilliant jewellery pieces, thrones and crowns decorated with precious stones, lavishly adorned decorations and goblets.

Today in Armenia we are conducting consistent works aimed at the development of jewellery making and stone processing industry. We have proclaimed that area one of the priorities, a strategic area of our economy. It is also symbolic that for years now, in Armenia we celebrate the National Day of Jewellers; there is also a street in Yerevan named Jewellers’ Street which brings you here, to the Meridian jewellery economic zone. This was initiated by the one of the most enthusiastic individuals in your area, my advisor and the President of the World Association of the Armenian Jewellers Gagik Gevorkian.

Besides being a production complex, Meridian is a huge exhibition center which is hosting the Yerevan Show international jewellery exhibition for the sixth time. The last one was conducted under the auspices of the President of Armenia. It stressed the importance the state is attaching to the development of the jewellery industry, development and expansion of international cooperation in that area, of the mutually beneficial exchange of experience, new ideas, and establishment of professional and trade relations. The state will continue to encourage the activities in this zone.

We are glad that the Armenian Jewellers Association (AJA) has its active involvement and its worthy place in the multinational family of the jewellers.

Now, I would like to address the President of CIBJO.

Mr. Cavalieri,

We highly value your contribution to the organization, regulation, and development of the Industry. Your and the CIBJO’s efforts aimed at the dissemination and propagation of the traditions and outstanding achievements of the Armenian jewellers are commendable.

With this in mind, I have signed a decree on awarding you and now will execute that pleasant duty. I am hopeful that the activities of your organization in general and cooperation with the Armenian jewellers in particular will register new achievements in the visible future.

Dear Friends,

I wish efficient work to the Conference, great success to its participants, and new accomplishments to the CIBJO.

And now allow me to proceed with the award ceremony.

At the conclusion of his remarks, President Serzh Sargsyan awarded the President of the CIBJO Gaetano Cavalieri with the Medal of Gratitude for the activities of the World Jewellery Confederation in the Republic of Armenia, as well as for the proper presentation to the world of the Armenian jewellery and stone processing traditions.

Bethania Lutheran Church in Solvang is gathering with Armenian Christian churches from the Los Angeles area to celebrate the life of the late missionary Maria Jacobsen on Sunday, October 23, when a bust in her honor will be unveiled, reports.

Jacobsen was a Danish Lutheran missionary, who traveled in 1915 from Denmark to the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey) when she learned of the extermination of Armenians within its boundaries and on forced death marches to the Syrian desert. More than 1.5 million were killed in what has come to be known as the Armenian Genocide.

Jacobsen worked in the hospitals assisting Armenian people. The records she kept during this time have been credited as some of the most meaningful proof of the genocide, which Turkey still disputes. During her time in the eastern Ottoman Empire, she encountered numerous orphans of parents who were taken away by Turkish forces.

Her greatest work was directed at these orphans who she was able to find refuge for in Lebanon. She is credited by the Armenian people for saving the lives of up to 3,000 orphans during the genocide; children she hid in her care. She adopted three orphaned children. She found one by the side of a road, another was hiding in a tree.

When the genocide ended in 1922, Jacobsen moved many of the children to an orphanage she established near Beirut, Lebanon. She was buried there following her death in 1960.

He added, “I think this is an amazing person to honor, not only because of the work she did, but also because of her Danish heritage.”

Photo: AP

The death toll in Haiti as a result of Hurricane Matthew – the most powerful Caribbean storm in a decade – has soared to more than 300, officials say, the BBC reports.

Some 50 people were reported killed in the town of Roche-a-Bateau alone.

The nearby city of Jeremie saw 80% of its buildings levelled. In Sud province 30,000 homes were destroyed.

The hurricane, now a Category Three storm with sustained winds of 120mph (193km/h), is heading towards the US state of Florida.

At 02:00 local time (06:00 GMT) Matthew was still off the Florida coast, centred about 37 miles (60km) east of Vero Beach and was moving north-west at about 14mph (22km/h), the National Hurricane Center said.

Photo: AFP

Six German lawmakers will visit a key airbase in Turkey Wednesday, a Turkish official told AFP, as the NATO allies seek to move on from a bitter diplomatic row, AFP reports.

The German parliament in June joined more than 20 countries in recognizing the Ottoman Empire’s World War I-era massacre of Armenians as a genocide, prompting fury from Ankara.

Turkey promptly banned German lawmakers from visiting the Incirlik base in southern Turkey, where Germany has around 240 troops as part of the international coalition fighting ISIS across the border in Syria.

A furious President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also accused German lawmakers of Turkish origin who voted in favor of the resolution of having “tainted blood”.

Ankara gave the green light last month for the visit to go ahead only after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government clarified publicly that the Armenia resolution was “not legally binding”.

“Six German MPs will visit Incirlik air base Wednesday,” the official said Monday on condition of anonymity.

– Split in half, chiseled on one side and smooth on the other, the black rock memorializes not just the Armenian genocide, but also survival.

Unveiled Saturday evening as the sun set over Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles, the Armenian Genocide Monument is ringed by metal bars embedded in the ground and etched with the words of Armenian American writer William Saroyan:

“In the time of your life, live — so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.”

“We wanted something that was uplifting and also spoke to a much broader audience,” said photographer Levon Parian, one of a team who created the monument.

The five-ton piece was sculpted by Glendale architect Vahagn Thomasian from volcanic rock quarried from Armenia’s Ararat Valley.

The split in the monument represents the disruption of the 1915-18 genocide, which claimed the lives of about 1.2 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, which became the modern republic of Turkey. The Turkish government disputes that a genocide took place.

“The rough part resembles [the period] after the genocide when the Armenian people struggled and tried to survive,” Thomasian said. The smooth half “represents the present, future, new generations.”

Southern California is home to the largest Armenian community outside of Armenia. More than 200,000 people of Armenian descent live in Los Angeles County.

The idea for a Los Angeles monument grew out of last year’s iWitness installation in Grand Park, which marked the centennial of the genocide with huge portraits of survivors.

County Supervisor Michael Antonovich told the iWitness team that he would like a permanent memorial. Thomasian settled on something “very simple” that was, he said, both less and more.

CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS KAREKIN II,
SUPREME PATRIARCH AND CATHOLICOS OF ALL ARMENIANS,
ON THE OCCASION OF THE DAY OF KNOWLEDGE
( September 1, 2016 )

From the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin we extend Our Pontifical blessings on the occasion of the Day of Knowledge, congratulating all the teachers, students and schoolchildren of educational institutions.

The mystery of the day expresses the desire and love of our people towards science and enlightenment, which has become a guarantor of our national longevity. Our nation celebrates every new Academic year with hope and expectations, that the soul and minds of our children be strengthened through the light of knowledge which is spread from the educational institutions. Education and knowledge are a God-given gift, enabling humanity to make their live safe and happy by recognizing his Creator and the world.

We extend our prayers to Almighty God asking to make the new academic year productive with His heaven-sent divine blessings, to grant strength and energy to teacher-lecturers and all devotees of education in order to educate a nation of deserving and talented children.

With the blessings of our Lord, may the new Academic year be fruitful with abundant merits for the sake of strengthening the Homeland and progress of our nation.

Interview of Shavarsh Kocharyan, Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia to German newspaper “Die Tagespost”

Question: Armenia accepted Christianity in the year of 301 as the official religion of the kingdom and its people. How would you describe the role of Christian faith for the identity of Armenia today?

Shavarsh Kocharyan: Christianity should be viewed as a system of values, which forms the basis of modern-day democracy, rather than a mere religion. The fact of being the first to adopt the Christianity as its state religion back in 301 played a crucial role in the history of the Armenian people. As history testified, the Christian system of values became an integral part of the Armenian identity, and, amid suppression of external powers, the fight for preserving identity became a fight for the system of values and the Christian faith.

Question: During the history, Armenia has been threatened by superior adjacent powers most of the time. How has the Armenian national identity been able to survive?

Shavarsh Kocharyan: It will not be an exaggeration to compare all the nations of the world with the tip of iceberg. Numerous nations have become extinct, and first of all we mean not a physical extinction as itself, but rather the loss of identity and assimilation with other nations.

Despite numerous destructive campaigns and yoke of major powers, the Armenian people survived due to its struggle for the preservation of its identity based on Christian system of values.

Question: Is Armenia today again in a struggle of survival, provoked by Turkey and Azerbaijan – in the case of Nagorno-Karabakh?

Shavarsh Kocharyan: Different Armenian states existed throughout its millennia-old history. However, for centuries the Armenians lacked statehood. In the 20th century, the Armenians were twice blessed with a unique opportunity to regain independence. The First Republic of Armenia, established in 1918, lasted just under 3 years and was then forcibly integrated into the Bolshevik Russia, as a federative unit.

Nagorno-Karabakh or Artsakh, mentioned as part of historic Armenia by ancient authors including Strabo, Plutarch, Pliny, Claudius Ptolemy, Dion Cassius and others, had all the attributes of sovereignty in 1918-1921 and was recognized by the League of Nations as a disputed territory. In 1921, by the decision of Bolshevik Communist Party’s Bureau, Nagorno-Karabakh was incorporated into the newly Sovietized Azerbaijan, in stark contrast to the will of the people of Artsakh.

In 1991, both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh held independence referendums in full compliance with the International Law and the Constitution of the still existing Soviet Union, which served as the bases for the establishment of modern-day Republic of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic.

Following the collapse of the USSR, the two Armenian states have pursued a democratic path of developing their societies. Nagorno-Karabakh faces additional challenges of overcoming the consequences of Azerbaijani aggression unleashed against the self-determined Nagorno-Karabakh at the beginning of 1990s, the constant tensions maintained by Azerbaijan along the Line of Contact with Nagorno-Karabakh and the threat of resumption of military actions, as witnessed in early April this year.

Armenia will guarantee the security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh within its full capabilities in case of any military aggressive action against the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic strives for international recognition, however, as of now, not a single state, including Armenia, de jure recognizes the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, not to undermine the ongoing negotiation process, mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. One of the key elements of the process is the determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally binding expression of will of its people.

The barbaric acts committed by the detachments of the Azerbaijan Army during the recent aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh, i.e. the shelling of schools resulting in innocent children being killed and wounded, brutal torture, mutilation and murder of three elderly persons, including a 92 year old woman, the ISIL-style beheading of three captive soldiers of the Nagorno-Karabakh armed forces, as well as the awarding on the Presidential level of the perpetrators of such war crimes reveal the very fact why Nagorno-Karabakh cannot be part of Azerbaijan.

The President of Azerbaijan has started to present territorial claims to the Republic of Armenia, declaring that the territory of Armenia separates Turkey and Azerbaijan, and that the affiliation of those territories to Armenia is a historical injustice.

And when it comes to Turkey, it fully supports Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

Question: How contaminated is the relation between Armenia and Turkey: due to history and due to the partnership of Turkey and Azerbaijan?

Shavarsh Kocharyan: Two factors hinder the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia. The first is Turkey’s denial of the Armenian Genocide, committed by the Ottoman Empire in 1915, and secondly, Turkey unilaterally closed the border with Armenia in support for Azerbaijan’s policy of blockading Armenia. Thus the Turkish-Armenian border is the only closed border in Europe.

By the initiative of Armenia and support of mediator states, Protocols on the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey were drafted and signed in Zurich in 2009. The Protocols were aimed at a step-by-step normalization of relations between the two states without any preconditions. However, the Turkish authorities undermined the process of ratification of the Protocols, by putting forward preconditions related to the denial of Armenian Genocide and presenting pro-Azerbaijani claims with regard to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. As a result, Turkey, in support for Azerbaijan, continues the blockade of Armenia and by its statements encourages Azerbaijan to further toughen its already destructive position in the Nagorno-Karabakh negotiation process. In its turn Azerbaijan more fiercely denies the reality of Armenian Genocide committed in the Ottoman Empire. This is caused by the fact, that Azerbaijan is the inheritor of the Ottoman Empire’s genocidal policy against the Armenians, which was proven by the pogroms and ethnic cleansings against the Armenian population in Sumgait, Baku, Kirovabad and in other places, committed in response to the will of Nagorno-Karabakh people to exercise their right to self-determination.

Within this context, it is not a coincidence that the Head of Azerbaijan declares the Armenians of the world as his country’s number one enemy, and glorifies and rewards the criminals who killed Armenians, as was the case with murderers who axed an Armenian officer in his sleep during NATO-sponsored training seminar in Budapest and beheaded captive Armenian soldiers during the April aggression.
The ratification of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols, along with the refusal to deny the Armenian Genocide was testing Turkey’s actual readiness to integrate into Europe and adopt the European system of values. It is not a coincidence that failure in this test overlapped with Turkey’s backtracking from the European path.

Question: What does the Genocide mean for the identity of Armenians (in Armenia as well as in the diaspora) today?

Shavarsh Kocharyan: One and a half million Armenians became victims of the Armenian Genocide and hundred thousands of Armenians lost their homeland, spreading all over the world. And there is almost no Armenian who has not been affected by the Genocide. And the pain of Genocide grows deeper as we are still facing its denial.

The Armenian people, the survivor of the first Genocide of the 21st century, believes that the recognition and condemnation of genocides is not only an issue of restoration of justice towards the peoples who have undergone it, but also a necessity for the whole humanity, aimed at the prevention of possible genocides in the future.

It is not a coincidence, that Armenia initiated the Genocide Prevention Resolution adopted by consensus in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, co-sponsored by more than seven dozen states, and on the proposals of which the UNGA declared the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime. The Resolution considers attempts of denial and justification of the crime of genocide as major obstacle to the steps on genocide prevention.

The Global Forum “Against the Crime of Genocide”, launched within the framework of the commemoration of the Centenary of the Armenian Genocide and held on a regular basis in Yerevan, serves the same purpose and has transformed into a platform for exchanging views on the issue between genocide scholars and representatives of different states.

The Armenian nation, a survivor of genocide, and a witness of new attempts to commit genocide, as well as of new strategies of its denial, is confident that today, just like a century ago, the issue of prevention of crimes against humanity remains an imperative.

Question: Russia seems to be the protective power of Armenia. But at the same time Moscow promotes the armament of Azerbaijan. What role does Russia play concerning peace and stability in this area?

Shavarsh Kocharyan: Let’s emphasize that Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh first and foremost rely on their own abilities in defense and security issues. At the same time, Armenia considers the deepening cooperation with various countries and international institutions as a restraining factor against the attempts to undermine the regional stability. Armenia’s military-political cooperation with Russia servers the same purpose.

Russia traditionally considers the South Caucasus as a zone of its influence and tries to pursue a balanced policy with other regional states, stemming from its own interests. Its balanced policy is also rooted in its involvement in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process as one of the three OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

It was the mediation of Russia that produced the trilateral agreement on armistice between Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, signed in May, 1994, which serves as a basis for peaceful negotiation process under the aegis of OSCE Minsk Group. The ceasefire was violated this April by the aggression unleashed against Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan. And again, with the mediation of Russia a verbal agreement was reached on April 5 to restore the ceasefire regime of 1994.

Question: What do you expect Europe to do for stability and self-determination of the Armenians?

Shavarsh Kocharyan: The Republic of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, two Armenian states self- determined in 1991, highly value the stance of European countries on settling the Nagorno-Karabakh issue exclusively through peaceful means, and on preserving peace and stability in our region. At the same time it is important for the international community to make targeted statements on the escalation of the situation in the region, considering that Azerbaijan perceives the tolerant statements based on European system of values as a carte blanche for its intolerant politics. This perception was behind the recent large-scale aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh with the use of heavy weaponry, artillery and air force.

Europe can have its input in preventing Azerbaijan from withholding the agreements reached on May 16 in Vienna between the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Those agreements propose the implementation of OSCE supported mechanism for investigating ceasefire violations along the Line of Contact between Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan and Armenian-Azerbaijani border, which will provide an opportunity to identify the initiator of each incident of ceasefire violation.

The implementation of this mechanism, as well as the expansion of the monitoring team of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-In-Office and enhancement of its capacities will contribute to the strengthening of the ceasefire and prevention of new hostilities, which can create necessary conditions for the effective implementation of the negotiation process.

Question: What do you wish and hope for Pope Francis’ visit to Armenia?

Shavarsh Kocharyan: The visit of Pope Francis to Armenia has a pan-Christian importance, as it is the visit to the first Christian country.

The enthusiasm with which Armenian people expect the visit of the Pontifex is caused by the fact that on April 12, last year, during the Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Catholic leader shared the pain of the Armenian nation and urged Turkey to face its history and pay tribute to the descendants of the Armenian Genocide.

This visit also creates an opportunity for our people in Armenia and Diaspora to express gratitude to Pope Francis for his principled stance on the Armenian Genocide, which was demonstrated before his election as a Pope.
At the same time, I avail myself of this opportunity to thank all the countries that recognized the Armenian Genocide and, specifically, Austria, the Parliament of which adopted a statement recognizing the Genocide on April 22, 2015, ahead of the Centenary.

Question: Could Pope, who will visit also Georgia and Azerbaijan in September, contribute to reconciliation between the neighboring powers?

Shavarsh Kocharyan: Despite all the attempts of Azerbaijan to add religious dimension to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the escalation of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, it is not the case. The essence of the issue is rooted in the right of the Nagorno-Karabakh people to self-determinate and decide their own destiny and future, and in the response of Azerbaijan manifested in violence, ethnic cleansings and large-scale war.

We believe that the Pope’s visit to Armenia and the upcoming visits to Georgia and Azerbaijan in September symbolize a message of tolerance and peace to the whole region.

Famous Italian singer and songwriter Eros Ramazotti’s concert in Yerevan was cancelled, but the money for tickets has not been returned yet. The Informed and Protected Consumer NGO has filed a suit against the organizers of the concert, President of the NGO Babken Pipoyan told reporters today. He calledon all citizens, who have bought tickets, but hav not got their money back to join the struggle.

Ramazotti’s concert was scheduled for April 2t w6, buas cancelled because the Russian organizers failed to meet their responsibilities. The Forpostart Production was the company responsible for the sale of tickets and organization of the concert in Armenia.

The Company had promised to reimburse the ticket priced between May 26 and June 26, but the money has not been returned three days before the deadline.