Author: Badalian Vardan

Sahagian Appointed Associate Trustee of ACAA Endowment Funds

By Contributor on September 4, 2014

By Bedros C. Bandazian

At their official meeting on June 30, the Armenian Cultural
Association of America, Inc. (ACAA) Board of Directors appointed James
G. Sahagian of New Jersey as associate trustee of the ACAA Endowment
Funds.

James G. Sahagian

Sahagian has been a financial advisor with Wells Fargo Advisors since
2009. His professional work is with individuals and institutional
clients on wealth and risk management, and wealth transfer strategies.
He has more than 15 years of professional experience in this field.
Sahagian earned his B.S. in accounting from Rutgers University and has
a MBA in finance from the Rutgers Graduate School of Management.

Sahagian was involved in establishing and promoting the Armenian
Studies Program at Rutgers while a student, and has continued to lead
this effort for more than 20 years. The program has sponsored Armenian
language and history courses and recently partnered with the
university’s Center for Genocide Studies and Human Rights.

The wealth of experience and knowledge that Sahagian brings to the
ACAA Endowment Funds will enhance its continuing growth–from humble
beginnings of under $195,000 in 1997 to over several million dollars
to date. The ACAA provides grants to further Armenian-language
newspapers, academic studies, internships, cultural programs, and
other endeavors to “foster a better relationship for the Armenian
Nation.” The ACAA is proud to have the services of James G. Sahagian
and welcome his addition to improve and further the Armenian Cause.

James Sahagian is married to the former Maral Halajian. They have two
children, Ari, 11, and Seta, 7. He and his family are members of the
St. Leon Armenian Church in New Jersey. The Sahagian Family resides in
Airmont, N.Y.

Bedros C. Bandazian is the managing trustee of the ACAA Endowment
Funds, the St. James Armenian Church of Richmond, Va., and the
Hamazkayin Cultural Association of America, Inc. Endowment Fund, and
advisor to several other endowment funds around the country, including
that of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, Inc., in its
formative years. The Bandazian Family helped establish the AYF Camp
Haiastan Endowment Fund and the ANCA Endowment Fund. Bandazian has
served on the ACAA Board of Directors and is currently chairman of the
Board of Bandazian & Hughes, Inc., a full-service real-estate firm in
Richmond, which he established in 1974. For more information on the
ACAA Endowment Fund, contact Bandazian by calling (804) 370-5468 or
e-mailing at [email protected].

NATO Will “Hit” Turkey With Karabakh

Naira Hayrumyan, Political Commentator
Politics – 05 September 2014, 20:12

The international press “did not notice” the meeting of the presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan and the U.S. Secretary Kerry. The results of
this meeting, however, may affect more global decisions. The most
important question is what the concluding resolution of NATO summit in
Wales will look like. Earlier only territorial integrity was mentioned
as a principle of settlement of the conflict which was the reason why
Serzh Sargsyan refused to attend the last two summits. Will the
principle of self-determination be stated as well?

This is not the “best” time for this. The key topic to NATO was the
war in Ukraine backed by Russia and the division of the country.
Including the principle in the NATO resolution would be perceived in
Ukraine as support to separatists, and in Russia a new impetus for
actions.

In order to adopt a wording on Karabakh that will favor Armenia NATO
will have to separate the Karabakh conflict from other conflicts,
including the Georgian ones. Therefore, NATO will hit Turkey painfully
which has announced that a settlement of the Karabakh conflict that
favors Azerbaijan is a priority.

Will NATO’s leading member states – the United States, France and
Great Britain – act against Turkey? Now the international conjuncture
is such that Turkey is perceived as the next outcast after Russia.
Turkey is supporting Islamist extremists in Russia and Iraq and Syria
and NATO may declare Russia and extremists enemies.

Armenian experts already suppose that Turkey may be removed from NATO.
In this respect, it is possible that unexpected wording on Karabakh
will be adopted in the NATO summit. Moreover, it will allow tearing
Armenia off the

– See more at:

Karen Bekaryan hopes Armenia’s approaches will be reflected in NATO’s
final document

16:54 05.09.2014

Karen Ghazaryan
Public Radio of Armenia

The NATO Summit is special to us this time, as Armenia is represented
at the presidential level, President of the European Integration NGO,
analyst Karen Bekaryan told reporters today.

He reminded that the Armenian President did not attend the two
previous summits, as the wording on Nagorno Karabakh used in the final
document was unacceptable to Armenia. In the final document NATO was
stressing the importance of only one of the principles – the
territorial integrity. This was seen as certain violation of the
format and content of negotiations under way within the framework of
the OSCE Minsk Group.

As for Armenian President’s speech at the summit, Karen Bekaryan
stressed several essential points. “First, the President emphasized
the fact that NATO member Turkey is lobbying to ensure support for the
interests of its ally Azerbaijan,” he said.

The political scientist considers that if this time NATO resorts to
the wording of the previous years, it will encourage Azerbaijan to
become more cynical and provocative in its actions. According to him,
this will lay a huge responsibility and blame on those who adopt the
document.

“If the same formulations are used, this will devalue the meeting in
Wales and Kerry’s promises,” Bekaryan said.

The analyst hopes, but is not confident, that Armenia’s approaches
will be reflected in the document, as there is danger that interests
are starting to prevail over values.

Moscow to host Tigran Mansuryan’s concert

11:05, 5 September, 2014

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS: The 75 th birthday jubilee evening of the
great Armenian composer Tigran Mansuryan will be held on September 5 at the
Rachmaninov Concert Hall of the Moscow State Conservatoire.

Tigran Mansuryan told the Armenpress correspondent that the concert will be
attended by his close friends.

“My friends want to congratulate me on my 75 th anniversary. The piano
player Alexey Lyubimov initiated this concert.

The violinist Hayk Ghazaryan, pianist Alexey Lyubimov, cellist Alexander
Rudin, violist Sergey Poltavsky and clarinetist Mikhail Beznosov will
perform during the evening”, – said Mansuryan.

Tigran Mansuryan was born in Beirut and educated in Yerevan, Armenia, where
his family had moved in 1947 and settled in Yerevan in 1956. He studied
first at the Romanos Melikian Music College under the Armenian composer
Edvard Baghdasaryan and later at the Yerevan Komitas Stat Conservatory. His
“Monodia” album was nominated for the 2005 Grammy Award for “Best
Instrumental Soloist Performance (with Orchestra)” and “Best Classical
Contemporary Composition.”

Kocharyan-Ter-Petrosyan cooperation not excluded – Narek Galstyan

14:20 / 05.09.2014

Leader of Armenian branch of Social Democrat Hnchakyan party Narek
Galstyan spoke at a news conference today about possible
inner-political developments, actions expected from the four political
forces.

“To wait something serious in the fall is not serious I think. All the
political forces are in the process of reshuffling. In reality I
expect a big clash but it will not happen now but until the
parliamentary elections,” Galstyan said.

“Not a clash of ideas will take place but a fight for chair, for
office. Oligarchy will participate in it. It is the cancer of the
nations. The expected clash will move the grounds of our state and the
expectations of the people will not be justified and a march of
disappointments will follow,” he said.
The party’s leader said some of the parliamentary, non
pro-governmental forces will serve the return of Robert Kocharyan and
it is a fact that he will return. “Kocharyan’s return is a fact and it
is also a fact that nothing good is expected with his return. When
Levon Ter-Petrosyan returned to big politics after 10 years of silence
he good or bad but presented a report to the people. Each political
figure, especially having a certain status, while speaking about his
return must be frank in his actions and tell people what he has done
and what he did not,” he said, adding that he does not exclude
Kocharyan-Ter-Petrosyan cooperation.

Armenian youth activist concerned over dangerous cult

13:55 * 05.09.14

An Armenian youth activist on Friday voiced his concerns about a
dangerous religious cult which has recently penetrated into the
country.

Sevak Hovhannisyan, a co-chair of the Armenian Youth League, said
several victims of the sect, New Way, have applied to them,
complaining about its ruinous effects on psychic health.

“One of the survivors is a relation of one of our popular singers.
[That person] has twice attempted suicide. The cult’s chiefs have not
yet been named. It isn’t registered with the Ministry of Justice; all
we know is that it was launched in Ukraine in 2010,” he noted.

Hovhannisyan said he knows that another sect, God’s Home, periodically
meets in Yerevan, attracting also children to join its assemblies.
“That’s a violation of the law. The cult meets every week, also in the
regions,” the activist warned.

Armenian News – Tert.am

FRANCE
Inauguration de la Chambre Economique Franco-Arménienne à Nice le 12
septembre 2014

L’inauguration de la Chambre Economique Franco-Arménienne de la Côte
d’Azur (CECA) aura lieu le vendredi 12 septembre 2014 à partir de
18h00 au Thétre de la Photographie et de l’Image de Nice (27
Boulevard Dubouchage)*.

La CECA a notamment pour but de fédérer les acteurs du monde
professionnel franco-arménien de la Côte d’Azur, d’améliorer le climat
dans le monde des affaires, de promouvoir l’image de marque de notre
région dans le monde, de tisser des liens avec nos homologues
d’Arménie et de la diaspora, ou toute autre action susceptible de
faire rayonner localement et à l’international ses membres par leur
métiers, leurs savoirs, leurs idées ou leurs développements.

Le 12 septembre prochain, la CECA compte sur la présence de tous les
professionnels arméno-azuréens afin de contribuer à la réussite de cet
ambitieux projet.

*Salle gracieusement mise à notre disposition par la Mairie de Nice ;
à l’issue de la présentation, un cocktail sera offert à l’ensemble des
participants.

vendredi 5 septembre 2014,
Stéphane (c)armenews.com

NATO Summit: Armenian president slams Turkish lobbying of
Karabakh-related document

ANALYSIS | 05.09.14 | 10:19

Photolure

By NAIRA HAYRUMYAN
ArmeniaNow correspondent

The NATO gathering in Newport, Wales, UK, provided another occasion
for a meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan, Serzh
Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev. Their meeting on the sidelines of the NATO
summit this time was organized by United States Secretary of State
John Kerry.

Sargsyan’s participation in the summit was confirmed only several
hours before his actual departure to the UK on Wednesday evening.
According to experts, Armenia’s ally Russia could not approve
Sargsyan’s trip to the summit where Russia had not been invited and
where measures were to be worked out to counter Russia’s ambitions.

However, Sargsyan was not going to participate in the actual NATO
summit, where from non-members of the Alliance only the president of
Ukraine Petro Poroshenko had been invited. The Armenian president
instead held a bilateral meeting with French President Francois
Hollande, with whom he discussed the initiative of his French
counterpart of a trilateral meeting, Sargsyan-Aliyev-Hollande. In
addition, he participated in the meeting of heads of State and
government of NATO-member States and nations involved in International
Security Assistance Forces in Afghanistan /ISAF/.

At that meeting, Sargsyan delivered a speech in which he noted that
Armenia knows all too well the price of both peace and security.
“Tomorrow in this room a document will be adopted that directly
concerns my people and peace in our region. There are two options –
either the document will adopt the language of the OSCE Minsk Group,
which is the only specialized international structure dealing with the
Nagorno-Karabakh problem … or will again succumb to lobbying by
another member state aimed at saving the face of our dictator neighbor
vis-a-vis his own people,” he said. “Believe me, that would not lead
to any positive results.”

The matter concerns the final declaration of the NATO summit. In 2010
and 2012, Sargsyan shunned attendance of the NATO summits in Lisbon
and Chicago, conditioning it by the fact that there was some wording
undesirable for the Armenian side in the final declarations. In
particular, due to the lobbying of Turkey, on the part of the Karabakh
settlement the declarations only referred to the principle of
territorial integrity, but had nothing about the principle of
self-determination of peoples.

Judging by the fact that Sargsyan agreed to go to the summit this
time, there could be some other formulations in the text of the
declaration. At least, the Armenian president may have received such
assurances from France and the United States.

Before the meeting, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan paid a
visit to Baku, where he said that together with President Aliyev he
would do everything to include the Karabakh issue in the agenda of the
NATO summit and “urge NATO to fulfill its promises.” He did not
specify what promises he meant, but it is clear that the promise to
Erdogan was to repeat the text of the previous resolution.

It is also remarkable that before the summit, a fifth American state,
California, recognized the independence of the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic, and there are speculations that the issue of the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide is being discussed in the United States also
at the federal level.

Nevertheless, the official report on the Sargsyan-Aliyev-Kerry meeting
did not present any specific agreements.

In his statement, Secretary of State Kerry reiterated that a peaceful
settlement of the conflict has no alternative, noting the need to
avoid escalation of the situation and calling on the parties to find
mechanisms to reduce tensions and strengthen confidence-building
measures.

Kerry noted the importance of continuing negotiations within the OSCE
Minsk Group and expressed readiness to support the search for
solutions. The U.S. secretary of state, at the same time, stressed
that the political will of the sides is very important for the
peaceful settlement of the conflict.

The statement about the Minsk Group is important in the sense that on
August 10 Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi invited Sargsyan
and Aliyev and tried to bypass the Minsk Group in taking over the
initiative on settling the problem. This raised concerns with the
other two co-chairs of the Minsk Group, the United States and France,
that would not want to see a Karabakh settlement according to the
Russian scenario.

Trend, Azerbaijan
Sept 3 2014

Armenia, OSCE discuss situation in Nagorno-Karabakh

Yerevan hosted a meeting between Armenian Defense Minister Seyran
Ohanyan and OSCE Chairman-in-Office Personal Representative Andrzej
Kasprzyk, news.am reported with reference to the Defense Ministry.

The sides discussed the situation on the contact line of Azerbaijani
and Armenian troops and issues relating to the strengthening of mutual
trust.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan.

As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied
20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and
seven surrounding districts.

The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs
of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently
holding peace negotiations.

Armenia has not yet implemented four U.N. Security Council resolutions
on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.

APA, Azerbaijan
Sept 3 2014

Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Problem between Turkey and Armenia will not be
resolved until Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict settlement
PHOTOSESSION

[ 03 September 2014 13:56 ]

“Otherwise, the situation between Turkey and Armenia will remain the same”

Baku. Ramiz Mikayiloglu – APA. Following the one-on-one meeting
between, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Baku, a meeting was held in an expanded format
with the participation of delegations, APA reports.

Extending his congratulations to Erdogan over his victory in the
presidential elections, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said that
Turkish President’s first official visit to Azerbaijan testifies to
the highest level relations between the two countries. The head of
state noted that bilateral and international issues were discussed at
the meeting. The views of the parties are the same in all issues.

Erdogan stated that the first official visits of Turkish and
Azerbaijani presidents have become a tradition, and it shows that the
relations are at highest level. He noted that a number of issues were
discussed at the meeting.

“Turkish-Azerbaijani relations will further develop in a different
form. In particular, the existing problems in the region must be
solved by joint efforts of the two countries. The problem between
Turkey and Armenia will not be resolved until Armenian-Azerbaijani
conflict settlement. Otherwise, the situation between Turkey and
Armenia will remain the same. Efforts to develop our relations will be
made resolutely in the future, as well,” Erdogan said.