Author: Badalian Vardan

FOR KIN OR COUNTRY: WHY THE CRIMEA CRISIS IS NOT ABOUT A GREATER RUSSIA PROJECT

Washington Post Blog
March 6 2014

By R. William Ayres and Stephen Saideman

R. William Ayres is associate dean of the Graduate School at Wright
State University. Stephen M. Saideman is the Paterson chair in
international affairs at Carleton University. They co-authored “For
Kin or Country: Xenophobia, Nationalism and War” (Columbia University
Press, 2008). Saideman’s most recent book (with David Auerswald) is
“NATO in Afghanistan: Fighting Together, Fighting Alone” (Princeton
University Press, 2014).

News out of Crimea raises the possibility of irredentism. Irredentism
is the effort to reunify a “lost” territory inhabited by ethnic kin
with either a mother country or with other territories also inhabited
by ethnic kin (think of Kurds in multiple countries creating a Greater
Kurdistan). So, if Crimea is detached from Ukraine and becomes part
of Russia, it would be a successful case of irredentism. We have not
seen one of these since Armenia gained hunks of Azerbaijan as the
Soviet Union fell apart, and, yes, Russia helped the Armenians.

As the Soviet Union disintegrated, there was much concern about the
approximately 25 million Russians left outside of Russia, including
those in Ukraine. Yet, for the most part, Russia did far less than
what observers feared. In our book “For Kin or Country: Xenophobia,
Nationalism and War,” we considered Russia to be in the category of
East European/Former Soviet cases that could have but did not engage
in irredentism — the silent dog s– which also included Hungary and
Romania. Our actively irredentist cases were Serbia, Croatia and
Armenia. Our book came out in 2008 just before the Russia/Georgia
conflict that could be seen as irredentism. So, our narcissistic
question would be: were we wrong? The less self-centered and far
more important question is: do the events of recent days suggest that
Putin’s Russia is likely to engage in further acts of irredentism?

Our answer to that is: probably not. Why? Because some of the key
dynamics in irredentist efforts which we identified more than six
years ago are still relevant.

First, the plight of the kin is over-rated. We found that the relative
danger facing the kin in the “lost” territory mattered less than
people thought. So, while Ukrainian assurances to the ethnic Russians
in Crimea and elsewhere are a good idea, the mother country (Russia
in this case) may move aggressively even if the kin are safe, or they
may not act even if the kin are in danger. While Putin has played up
reports of ethnic Russians being harmed, most credible observers do
not think this is the case. There certainly is no history in recent
years of Russian-speakers in Crimea being mistreated by the Ukrainian
government. Moreover, it is not yet clear if the Crimean parliament
was acting in coordination with Moscow — it could be that they are
asking for something that they will not get, as irredentism requires
the mother country to accept the territory.

Second, we argued in the book that Russian irredentism was not so
likely because Russia has an identity crisis: who counts as Russian?

Putin asserted his responsibility to protect all Russian speakers
(his statement was very similar to Hungary’s Jozeff Antall saying
he was the leader of fifteen million Hungarians when the population
of Hungary was about ten million in 1990), but not all those living
in Russia agree that Russian nationalism includes Russophones as
members of the Russian nation. Indeed, the existing survey evidence
suggests that this crisis is not very popular back in Russia. Those
in Russia, especially those who vote in the next elections, may not
want yet another basket-case to drain the country’s coffers (Crimean
supporters of annexation are unlikely to be future net contributors).

Indeed, a core part of our argument is that there will be nationalist
forces that are against some irredentist efforts because success means
including more “others” in one’s country. Annexing Crimea means not
just more ethnic Russians in Russia but more Ukrainians and more
Tatars. Taking on further territories, like the Donetsk region,
raise even more problems of mixed populations. So, those who focus
more on intolerance in their nationalist identities may not want more
foreigners in the country.

Third, it is not clear that Putin is doing any of this for domestic
political purposes. That is, he is currently not seriously facing
strong competition from someone who claims to be a better Russian
nationalist, and he has a variety of tools at his disposal to deal with
domestic opposition, including arresting journalists and repressing
dissent. Oh, and corruption to buy off potential opponents. There
may be a domestic political payoff, in that the minority of Russians
who support annexing Crimea may care more than the majority who are
opposed, but there’s no obvious reason why Putin needs that extra
margin of support.

Fourth, even if Russia does try to annex Crimea, it is still likely
to be the exception and not the rule. It will not be the start of
endless irredentism campaigns targeting the Russians in the rest of
the “near abroad.” In our book, Crimea did stand out, as it combined
both national interests (the Black Sea fleet) with a group of kin
that was more interested than others in the Greater Russia project.

So, this crisis is not about a Greater Russia project, even if Crimea
ends up in either a semi-status a la Nagorno-Karabakh or annexed
in reality, as the policies focused here are unlikely to play out
in other places where ethnic Russians reside, such as the Baltic
Republics or even other parts of eastern Ukraine. As other writers at
the Monkey Cage have argued, this is really a second-best (if that)
effort by Putin to have influence in Ukraine after his preferred
non-irredentist one, keeping President Yanukovych in power, failed.

While countries containing some of the 25 million lost Russians
are concerned, they should not panic as Putin is not Hitler (almost
the original irredentist), and he is not even Milosevic of Greater
Serbia fame.

PUTIN’S UKRAINE GAMBIT HURTS ECONOMY AS ALLIES LOSE BILLIONS

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 6 2014

6 March 2014 /AGNES LOVASZ, BLOOMBERG NEWS

LONDON — President Vladimir Putin’s brinkmanship in Ukraine has
already cost some of his closest comrades billions of dollars. The
other 144 million Russians may also pay a price.

Putin’s troop buildup in Crimea triggered the biggest stock selloff
in five years on March 3. It also pulled the ruble to a record low,
prompting the central bank to raise interest rates the most since 1998,
when a cash-strapped government stumbled toward default.

Longtime Putin ally Gennady Timchenko and his partner Leonid Mikhelson
lost a combined $3.2 billion of their wealth after their gas producer
OAO Novatek tumbled 18 percent.

“Russia will be the big loser of the crisis in Ukraine,” said Timothy
Ash, chief emerging-market economist at Standard Bank Group in London.

“There’ll be a big hit to domestic and foreign confidence, less
investment and likely increased outflows, likely losses for Russian
banks with exposure in Ukraine, a weaker ruble and weaker growth
and recovery.”

The tensest standoff with the West since the end of the Cold War
is exposing the weakness of an economy rebuilt on the back of the
energy industry. With oil and gas accounting for more than half of
all exports and energy prices stagnant, the growth potential is all
but exhausted, prompting officials in Moscow to sound the recession
alarm even as the country’s main trading partners recover.

Russia needs a new, more diversified economic model to secure future
expansion, Antonio Spilimbergo, the International Monetary Fund’s
mission chief in Moscow, said in a report last month. The $2 trillion
economy decelerated for a fourth year in 2013 as consumer spending
weakened and investment sagged along with demand for energy. Growth
slowed to 1.3 percent last year, the least since a 2009 recession,
from 3.4 percent in 2012.

Putin is seeking to regain influence over Ukraine after the overthrow
of Kremlin-backed President Viktor Yanukovych, who was deposed by
lawmakers on Feb. 22 after clashes with protesters in Kiev left at
least 95 people dead. Ignoring warnings from the United States and the
European Union, Putin has since sent thousands of troops to augment
the 15,000 already in Crimea, where Russia has stationed the Black
Sea Fleet since its founding by Catherine the Great in 1783.

The crisis has helped fuel the ruble’s 9 percent slide this year
against the dollar, the most among 24 emerging-market currencies
tracked by Bloomberg after Argentina’s peso. The Russian currency
weakened 1.8 percent against the dollar March 3 even after the central
bank unexpectedly raised its key interest rate by 150 basis points
and spent as much as $12 billion defending the currency, according
to ING Groep. The Micex Index sank as much as 13 percent.

Putin’s gambit is already threatening to derail $8 billion of
international loans sought by at least 10 Russian companies including
billionaire Mikhail Fridman’s VimpelCom Ltd., according to data
compiled by Bloomberg. Secretary of State John Kerry threatened to
kick Russia out of the Group of Eight and impose asset freezes and
travel bans on Kremlin officials. That may force bankers to re-evaluate
potential deals, according to UralSib Capital in Moscow.

The Micex Index fell 0.4 percent Wednesday, with Novatek sliding
0.3 percent. The benchmark surged 5.3 percent Tuesday after Putin
said he doesn’t have plans to annex Crimea. The ruble was unchanged
at 9:46 p.m. in Moscow after a rebound Tuesday. Even so, the damage
inflicted on investor sentiment will be felt for months if not longer,
said Lilit Gevorgyan, senior economist at IHS Global Insight in London.

The capital flight echoes the aftermath of Putin’s last military foray
into a fellow former Soviet republic, Georgia, in August 2008 and
the collapse of Lehman Brothers the following month. In the aftermath
of those events through Feruary 2009, investors pulled at least $290
billion out of the country, according to BNP Paribas estimates. That
war, over two Russia-backed breakaway regions, also helped wipe $230
billion off the combined wealth of Russia’s 25 richest men over a
five-month period, according to Bloomberg calculations.

Even before the protests in Kiev turned deadly last month, Deputy
Economy Minister Andrei Klepach said capital outflows were increasing
and may reach $35 billion in the first quarter, more than half of
the $63 billion for all of 2013.

The military threat in Crimea can be added to the list of reasons
behind the capital exodus, which includes corruption, red tape and a
feeble legal system, Ash of Standard Bank said. Russia is the world’s
most corrupt major economy, ranking alongside Pakistan and Nicaragua
at 127th of 176 nations in the annual Corruption Perceptions Index
compiled by Transparency International, a Berlin-based watchdog.

“The loss of face that’s been suffered in the past week or so is
arguably the biggest humiliation that Putin has faced and Russia is
not used to losing these battles on its doorstep,” Neil Shearing,
chief emerging-markets economist at Capital Economics Ltd., said by
phone from London. “Even though the events in Ukraine are shaped
by politics rather than economics, there’s potential for economic
fallout for Russia.”

In November, when Putin scuttled Ukraine’s planned free trade deal with
the EU by offering Yanukovych $15 billion of aid and cheaper gas, he
said Russian banks had $28 billion of loans and assets in the country.

Souring loans may “materially affect the solvency” of Russian banks
with “significant” assets in Ukraine, Fitch Ratings said Feb. 25,
adding that state-owned lenders can count on government funding if
needed. The banks with the biggest exposure are Vnesheconombank,
the development bank known as VEB, with 74 percent of its capital,
Gazprombank with about 40 percent and VTB Group with 14 percent,
according to Fitch.

Russian companies also have investments in Ukraine’s energy, defense
and agricultural industries. The country is Russia’s fifth-largest
trading partner, with turnover of $39.6 billion last year, according
to data from the Federal Customs Service in Moscow. Exports to Ukraine
were $23.8 billion, while imports totaled $15.8 billion.

More vital to Putin is Ukraine’s network of pipelines, through which
state-run OAO Gazprom sends more than half of its exports to Europe,
where it has a quarter of the market.

Even so, Putin is prepared to do whatever it takes to stop Ukraine
from aligning with the West, said Michael Ganske, head of emerging
markets at Rogge Global Partners Plc in London.

Putin considers Ukraine and its 45 million people key to his goal
of building a trading bloc to rival the EU, according to Ganske. His
customs union, which Yanukovych planned closer ties with, is currently
comprised of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, though Armenia has also
agreed to join.

“Putin cares for the economy, but he cares more for the greatness of
Russia and regional influence,” Ganske said. “As a former spy, Putin
has this grand-Russia idea in his head and he just doesn’t accept that
Russia’s importance in the geopolitical context has decreased. Putin
doesn’t like the idea of Ukraine moving further away from Russia and
becoming part of the EU at some stage, let alone NATO.”

With assistance from Olga Tanas, Anna Andrianova, Vladimir Kuznetsov
and Scott Rose in Moscow and Stephen Morris in London.

ISLAMIC SCHOLARS CONDEMN JIHADIST TAX ON SYRIAN CHRISTIANS

Legal Monitor Worldwide
March 5, 2014 Wednesday

Syrians of all sects and Islamic scholars are decrying new rules
imposed by the “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant” (ISIL) in al-Raqa
which call for Christians to pay “jizya” tax and hold religious rituals
behind closed doors in return for their safety. Last week, ISIL posted
a list of 12 rules on jihadist forums and social networking sites,
saying they apply to Christians in al-Raqa, which is under the control
of the al-Qaeda-inspired group.

Al-Raqa resident Mahmoud Leila, a Muslim, said he is now ashamed to
face his Christian neighbour.

“How will I be able to interact with him as before?” he asked. “I
feel true shame and disgrace from the actions of these groups.”

“This matter is condemned by the people of al-Raqa, and by Muslims
before Christians because it is offensive to the beautiful history
among the people, to Islam and Muslims, as well as the Syrian
revolution,” he told Al-Shorfa.

Leila, who previously owned a building supplies store but is now out of
work, said some prominent figures and elders tried to negotiate with
ISIL to stop the tax, but were told unequivocally that “any al-Raqa
resident who opposes the imposition of sharia will be considered an
apostate and God’s sharia will be applied to him”.

The rules obligate every wealthy Christian man to pay 17 grams of
gold, a middle-income Christian man to pay half that amount and every
lower-income Christian man to pay a quarter of that.

They also prohibit the construction of churches and convents, the
display of Christian symbols such as crosses outside churches, the
ringing of church bells and public prayer.

The rules ban Christians from consuming alcohol in public, selling
alcohol or pork to Muslims, from “carrying out hostile actions against
ISIL” and from deviating from the sharia dress code. “I never imagined
that I would one day be subjected to what they call the provisions
of Islamic sharia in this manner, which is more like imprisonment,
suppression of personal freedoms and prohibition of the expression
of religious beliefs,” said Semaan al-Mallouhi, a retired Christian
resident of al-Raqa.

The relationship between Christians and Muslims in al-Raqa and its
environs is based on mutual respect, he told Al-Shorfa.

“No Muslim had once complained about the sound of church bells nor
had a Christian complained about the call to prayer via loudspeakers,
but rather the sounds often rose together when a city resident passed
away, be he Muslim or Christian,” he added.

Al-Mallouhi said the restrictions on Christians in al-Raqa began last
year with the arrival of extremist Islamist groups, including ISIL
and Jabhat al-Nusra (JAN), in the city.

In September, ISIL fighters entered the Greek Catholic Church of
Our Lady of the Annunciation and torched its religious furnishings,
AFP reported.

They did the same at the Armenian Catholic Church of the Martyrs,
also in al-Raqa, and destroyed a cross atop its clock tower, the news
agency said.

Al-Raqa was once home to more than 300 Christian families, but “now
that number has dropped dramatically to no more than 50 families”,
al-Mallouhi said.

In past months al-Raqa received many Syrian Christians fleeing areas
such as Deir Ezzor, al-Qamishli, al-Hasakeh and Ras al-Ain and seeking
safety in the city, he said.

ISIL has exploited their circumstances by offering them protection for
money under the cover of “jizya”, al-Mallouhi said. The imposition
of “jizya” on Christians in Syria is nothing but “a new fad, one of
many launched by terrorist groups stemming from al-Qaeda, which have
no legal authority to issue such edicts and rulings”, said Sheikh
Abdul Zahir Shehata, a lecturer at Egypt’s Al-Azhar faculty of sharia
and law.

This imposition is “a form of theft that uses religion as a cover”,
Shehata told Al-Shorfa.

“Jizya” is not a pillar of Islamic law, he said: It emerged during
the Islamic expansion era and was paid by non-Muslims who were capable
of fighting in return for protection, while zakat was collected from
Muslims, with proceeds going to the Muslim treasury where public
funds were held.

“ISIL contradicts itself,” Shehata said. “On the one hand they say
they are implementing the provisions of Islamic sharia, including the
‘jizya’, however the Islamic state must be a full-fledged state and
recognised by its citizens and subjects, which is not the case in
the areas where ISIL is imposing its control by force and bloodshed.”

“Jizya” runs contrary to the modern civil state, which takes all
people under its wing and whose principles are based on justice and
equality amongst all regardless of race or religion, he said.

“The imposition of ‘jizya’ under these circumstances and conditions is
unacceptable by sharia, and whoever does it is merely forcing people
to pay money in a manner that is more like the protection rackets
gangsters impose on people in the areas under their control,” he said.

The Rev. Francois Habib, a priest from al-Mansoura in al-Raqa province
who is residing in Amman, Jordan, said al-Raqa is not the only region
in which “jizya” has been imposed on Christians.

It also was imposed in al-Hasakeh where ISIL seized control in
November, he said.

“Unfortunately, armed takfiri groups launched assaults on Christians,
especially in al-Qamishli, Damascus, Tartous, Yabrud, Homs, Aleppo,
al-Raqa and Maaloula,” he told Al-Shorfa.

“It is unfortunate these things are happening in Syria, for Christians
make up 10% of the total population and are spread throughout Syria
and integrated into the fabric of Syrian society, to such an extent
that the Christian is indistinguishable from the Muslim,” he said.

PUTIN: TO START DRAWING UP AGREEMENT ON ARMENIA AND EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION

Interfax, Russia
March 5 2014

NOVO-OGARYOVO Moscow region. March 5

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes it is time to start drawing
up an agreement on Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union,
which should be formed in 2015.

“The Eurasian integration project is appealing to our CIS partners.

The negotiations on engaging Armenia and Kyrgyzstan are at the most
advanced stage now,” Putin said in opening a summit of the Supreme
Eurasian Economic Council on Wednesday.

Armenia has already adopted and is successfully implementing an action
plan to adapt the country’s law to the Customs Union and the Unified
Economic Area standards, he said.

“Therefore, I believe we can switch to drawing up an agreement on
Armenia’s accession to the future Eurasian Economic Union,” Putin said.

The Russian leader invited all participants in the project to weigh
its possible advantages and disadvantages. He also pointed out that
it is important to continue Kyrgyzstan’s accession to the Eurasian
Economic Union.

va mk

2 CONSTITUTIONAL COURT MEMBERS TO LEAVE OFFICE. ONE SECRETLY TALKED ABOUT LEVON TER-PETROSSIAN’S 2008 LAWSUIT

03.05.2014 14:33 epress.am

The powers of two members of Armenia’s Constitutional Court will soon
be revoked, reports local news provider Pastinfo.am [AM], noting that
since Manuk Topuzyan turns 65 today (and Constitutional Court members
hold office until the age of 65), he will have to leave his position
after his last case is closed, which is scheduled for June 3.

The age restriction will apply also to Constitutional Court
member Valeriy Poghosyan, who on March 25 will turn 70. Poghosyan
has been a Constitutional Court member since 1996, the date the
Constitutional Court was formed, which is why the old clause of the
2005 constitutional amendments — that Constitutional Court members
hold office until the age of 70 — applies to him.

Recall, in 2011, WikiLeaks released a US cable in which US Deputy
Chief of Mission (DCM) to Armenia Joseph Pennington in a letter
dated Mar. 7, 2008, said that US embassy officials were approached by
Valeriy Poghosyan on Mar. 6, 2008, for a secret meeting in which he
declared that then president of Armenia Robert Kocharian fixed the
court’s upcoming Mar. 8 decision to decide against the complaint by
ex-president Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP) alleging vote fraud in the
disputed February 19, 2008 presidential election.

MISREPRESENTATION BY DR. VREJ NERCESSIAN

Submitted by Rouben Galichian on Sun, 2014-03-02 16:18.

I feel that Dr Nersessian’s comments on my claims that Georgia, as it
stands today, came into being almost 2,000 years after Armenia and
Iran (Persia), needs an explanatory reply. I confirm that my claim
is a valid one, for which I have the following reasoning.

When reading the texts of my books Dr, Nersessian has not paid enough
attention to the details of my comments, where I always state that
“Georgia as the conglomeration of countries of Colchis, Iberia,
Mengrelia, Imeretia, Kakhetiafourteenth centuries”. I have said that
and I do stand by it.

This is proven even by the sample map offered as evidence by Dr.

Nersessian. This map shows Colchis (Abkhazia) as a separate
country from Iberia (Virq-Õ~NÕ”O~@O~D), from which the Armenian name
Vrastan-Õ~NO~@Õ¡Õ½Õ¿Õ¡Õ¶ derives. However, the Georgia-Õ~NO~@Õ¡Õ½Õ¿Õ¡Õ¶
of today includes all the territories of Colchis, Imeretia, Mengrelia,
Kakhetia and Iberia and the name is not applied to the historic
Iberia only.

When referring to the maps of Ptolemy, Dr. Nersessian conveniently
forgets to mention that in all of these maps depicting the South
Caucasus, presented as Asiae tabula tertia (The third map of Asia),
Ptolemy, in addition to Iberia and Albania, always includes the name
of the country of Colchis as one separate from Iberia.

Early medieval maps do show Iberia as a country, but this refers to
only a small part of present-day Georgia. The first maps where the
name Georgia is given to the territory of the modern country is after
Queen Tamar’s reign, when she managed to unify the different regional
kingdoms under the name of Georgia. First European maps that show this
name date from the thirteenth and fourteen centuries only. That is,
almost 2,000 years after Armenia and Persia.

Yours, Rouben Galichian

Addendum by Keghart.com

The map appearing in the article was provided as an illustration by
Keghart.com editors and not Rev. Doc. Nersessian, unbeknownst to both
parties to this discussion.- Edit.

L’EQUIPE D’ARMENIE EST ARRIVEE HIER A KRASNODAR

AVANT RUSSIE-ARMENIE AMICAL

Le 4 mars l’equipe nationale d’Armenie avec a sa tete
l’ex-selectionneur national Vartan Minassian est arrivee a
l’aeroport > de Krasnodar. Il y etaient attendus par
une cinquantaine se supporters Armeniens membres du First Armenian
Front (FAF) ainsi que d’autres fans de l’equipe d’Armenie. Le nouvel
entraineur d’Armenie, le Suisse Bernard Challandes etait egalement
present a Krasnodar pour suivre la rencontre amicale Russie-Armenie,
cet après-midi. Après les seances de dedicaces et de photos avec les
supporters, les joueurs de l’equipe d’Armenie se sont ensuite diriges
vers l’hôtel >. L’Armenie, 30e equipe mondiale au dernier
classement de la FIFA voit le nombre de ses supporter grossir après
ses performances. Photos News.am sport

Krikor Amirzayan

mercredi 5 mars 2014, Krikor Amirzayan (c)armenews.com

THE OSCARS; FIRM GETS A HUGE SLICE OF PUBLICITY

Los Angeles Times
March 4, 2014 Tuesday
Home Edition

Pizza chain hopes to capitalize on buzz from delivery during Academy
Awards.

by: Tiffany Hsu

Burbank pizza chain Big Mama’s & Papa’s already held a modicum of
fame before Sunday night’s Oscar telecast as the home of the largest
pizza commercially available worldwide.

But even a Guinness World Record-holding, 54-square-inch pie (cost:
$200) couldn’t hope to provide the surge of recognition bestowed
suddenly on the company mid-telecast by Academy Awards host Ellen
DeGeneres.

The Oscar debut of Big Mama’s & Papa’s is by now well recounted:
DeGeneres offered to buy pizzas for the assembled A-listers and then
pulled a grinning deliveryman with a stack of three boxes onto the
Dolby Theatre stage.

And grease stains on couture gowns and bespoke tuxes be darned.

Bold-faced names such as Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and Jennifer
Lawrence chowed down at their seats.

DeGeneres milked the gag further by soliciting tips from Harvey
Weinstein and other audience members. Best supporting actress Lupita
Nyong’o pitched in some lip balm.

Big Mama’s & Papa’s employee Hayk Abramyan said in an email that
the Oscar plug caused “definitely a spike in orders,” with more than
100,000 visitors to the chain in less than 24 hours.

Consider that Oscar viewership surged to a 10-year high of 43 million
people on average, a 6% boost from last year.

But Big Mama’s & Papa’s Pizzeria Inc. wants more out of the exposure
than wads of $20 bills tossed into singer Pharrell Williams’
telegenic hat.

The chain, which counts a Sunset Boulevard location blocks away from
the awards site among its 20 units, is following up the Oscars with
a publicity rampage.

The franchise chain, owned by Armenia-born Aro Agakhanyan, is now
angling to become the official pizza of the Oscars.

DeGeneres’ stunt likely saved Big Mama’s & Papa’s a fortune in
advertising: Kantar Media pegged the price of commercial slots during
the ceremony at $1.8 million for 30 seconds.

On the pizza company’s website, a photo of DeGeneres in her white suit
and scarf dominates the page. The deliveryman, who was identified by
the chain as franchise co-owner Edgar Martirosyan and “not an actor,”
is shown in a red hat and apron serving up a slice to Harrison Ford.

The Big Mama’s & Papa’s Instagram page now includes shots of Brad Pitt
digging into a piece of pie by Angelina Jolie’s side, a befuddled
Dax Shepard and supporting-actor winner Jared Leto accepting pizza
from DeGeneres.

The company’s Twitter account noted that DeGeneres’ talk show Monday
put in another order, this time out of Big Mama’s & Papa’s Burbank
location.

As for Martirosyan, the pizza entrepreneur appeared on DeGeneres’ show
Monday, where the host said she had collected $600 in tips for him.

She then handed him an additional $400 from her pocket.

ANC CANADA URGES SWITZERLAND TO APPEAL ECHR RULING

Tuesday, March 4th, 2014

Armenian National Committee of Canada

OTTAWA, Canada–On Thursday, Feb. 27, the Armenian National Committee
of Canada (ANCC) met with Swiss Ambassador to Canada, Ulrich Lehner.

The meeting, by request of the ANCC, was to convey to the Swiss
ambassador the importance that the Swiss government exercise its right
to appeal the European Court of Human Rights’ verdict on genocide
denial in Europe, stemming from a case involving a Turkish politician,
Dogu Perincek.

ANCC voiced the serious concerns of Armenian-Canadians, and Armenians
worldwide, regarding the ECHR’s December 17, 2013, decision that
rejected the Swiss court’s 2007 decision to penalize, under Swiss
Penal Law, Dogu Perincek’s vehement denial of the Armenian Genocide.

In 2007, Turkish politician Dogu Perincek was convicted by the
Federal Court of Switzerland for publicly denying the Armenian
Genocide that included his public statement that “the genocide is
an international lie.” The ECHR subsequently ruled that it was not a
crime for Perincek to publicly deny the Armenian Genocide, contrary
to Swiss laws prohibiting denial and other European directives urging
states to take a stronger stance in fighting denial of genocide and
crimes against humanity.

In an open and frank discussion with the Swiss Ambassador, the ANCC
highlighted the gravity of some of the key factual and legal errors
in the reasoning of the five to two majority decision of the ECHR
decision.

The ANCC urged Switzerland, a nation that has been at the forefront of
prohibiting denial of genocide and crimes against humanity in Europe,
to keep its principled stance on the matter. “There is ample scholarly
and expert opinion that would support Switzerland’s strong grounds
to appeal the decision” said ANCC president, Dr. Girair Basmadjian,
pointing to the dissenting opinions of two of the seven ECHR judges
who heard the case. “The message that Switzerland will be sending
to Europe and the world, if it chooses to accept this ECHR verdict
and not to appeal it, will not only cause a significant setback to
Turkey’s recognition of the Armenian genocide, but it will also be
a significant setback to fighting denial of other genocides, and to
the prevention of genocides from occurring in the future.”

The decision to request a revision of the ECHR’ decision rests
primarily on Switzerland’s Federal Department of Justice and Police
(FDJP), headed by Minister Simonetta Sommaruga. The ANCC anticipates
that the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and even the
Swiss Federal Council, may weigh in on the decision, given the broader
legal and political repercussions that this ECHR verdict will have on
fighting genocide denial, racism and incitement to hatred in Europe
and possibly beyond.

ARARAT-ESKIJIAN GENOCIDE CONFERENCE TO UNVEIL HISTORIC RELICS

Monday, March 3rd, 2014

A dress once owned by an orphan who survived the Adana Massacres of
1909 and was taken in by an orphanage in Hadjin

MISSION HILLS, Calif.–Relics from the Armenian genocide will be
unveiled during a conference focusing on the heroes and survivors
of the genocide at the Ararat-Eskijian museum in Mission Hills on
March 22.

Filmmaker Bared Maronian along with British journalist Robert Fisk,
Professor Vahakn Dadrian, Dr. Hayk Demoyan, Ayse Gunaysu, Missak
Keleshian, Shant Mardirossian, Dr. Rubina Peroomian and Professor
Vahram Shemmassian will take part in the daylong conference honoring
those who aided in the rescue of survivors of the genocide from 1915
through 1930.

While researching the stories of orphans of the Armenian genocide
for his documentary, Orphans of the Genocide, Maronian discovered
information regarding a dress once owned by an orphan in Hadjin
(now known as Saimbeyli), an Armenian town located roughly 125 miles
north of Mersin in Turkey. After some time, he located the dress at
the Bethel College Library in Mishawaka, Indiana.

“The dress belonged to an orphan, who survived the Adana Massacre
of 1909 and walked from Adana to Hadjin, roughly 75 miles,” Maronian
said. “She found refuge at the United Orphanage and Mission in Hadjin
run by a North American Mennonite congregation.”

The UOM in Hadjin was subject to continuous threats and pressure by
Ottoman authorities to cease operations. When World War I broke out,
the missionaries were all called home.

According to Maronian, in 1914 Sister Dorinda Bowman packed the orphan
dress along with an unfinished rug the orphan girls had been weaving.

“The dress, most likely worn by a 7-year-old orphan girl or a boy,
is a significant tangible remnant of the Armenian Genocide,” Maronian
said. “A close look at the dress makes you wonder what the children of
the genocide went through and how only a handful resiliently survived,
while most were butchered or faced death or starvation or disease.”

Roughly 1.5 million Armenians were killed during WWI during the Ottoman
Empire’s reign over their homeland in what is modern day Turkey. The
Adana massacre occurred in the Ottoman Empire province of Adana in
1909, which resulted in the deaths of as many as 30,000 Armenians in
the course of a month.

The dress and rug are currently on loan by the Bethel College Library
to the Ararat-Eskijian Museum for two years.