Author: Eduard Nalbandian

The Armenian National Security Service task force combating terrorism (Alfa) and representtaives of the Armenian Police’s head department combating organized crime have reportedly “neutralized” a group of armed people in Yerevan that allegedly planned to carry out terrorist acts in the Armenian capital.

According to the report, the group of ten people was armed with modern weapons. ammunition and explosives and was planning large-scale terrorist acts in accress Armenia. Three of the alleged terrorists were female, seven were male, most of them foreign citizens.

The group illegally bought and stored the weapons in one of the houses in the capital’s Nork Marash district. The group was headed by RA citizen Arthur Vardanyan, who returned to Yerevan in 2015 after years abroad.

Photographer Michelle Andonian traveled to Turkey last year to retrace her grandmother’s steps after she was driven from her village during the Armenian Genocide of 1915, reports.

The Turkish government, however, has always denied the genocide, maintaining that the deaths were just an unfortunate consequence of wartime chaos.

The visit to Turkey was a profoundly affecting experience for Andonian. Out of it came a photo exhibition at the College for Creative Studies Center Galleries, up through Oct. 24, and a book — “This Picture I Gift” — just published by Wayne State University Press.

On Sunday, Andonian will participate in “Hope Dies Last” at the Detroit Film Theatre, a multimedia performance with violinist Ida Kavafia commemorating the Armenian Genocide. She talked to  about her trip and the book.

Where did the title for the book and exhibition come from?

I came across a picture postcard of my grandmother and aunt while going through my grandmother’s things, and it said that on the back. It’s a literal translation of the Armenian.

She sent it to a relative in Detroit they were coming to live with. I felt it was saying, “Here we are. We’re coming. We’re leaving everything we know behind, but this picture I gift to you.”

What did you take on this project?

My nephew saw that picture in my loft one day, and he asked who it was. I said, “My goodness, that’s your great-grandmother. You don’t know who that is? You don’t know what she went through?”

I realized all that would get lost in the next generation. Fear of losing that history was really the inspiration. And I learned so much about my people I didn’t know. I’m still learning.

When did you go?

July 2014. I was in Turkey and Armenia about a month, though I’d been in Armenia a number of times before.

Did your grandmother die in the genocide?

No, she died in 1987 when I was 28. Her name was Sara. She raised us. We lived next door to her in southwest Detroit. Both my parents worked, so my grandmother took care of us. But she was also the grandmother to the entire neighborhood.

Why did your grandmother and family leave their village?

In 1915, my grandmother’s father —a shepherd — was killed. Murdered. The course of the atrocity went like this: Ottoman Turks would go into the villages, take away all the men, and for the most part, kill them. They deported the women, children and older people who couldn’t fend for themselves.

They said, “It’s a war, you’re going to leave. Pack your stuff on a donkey.” But it was a death march, marching through the desert toward Syria.

How old was your grandmother?

Seven or eight. The family basically walked for three years with no food, no water. You know the migrants today, from Syria to Turkey to Greece to Hungary? It’s basically the same thing. My grandmother remembered stepping over dead bodies. She remembered the smell. Her baby brother died in her mother’s arms. But those who did survive did so because of the kindness of some Turkish and Kurdish families.

Where did they go?

They walked from their village of Iskhan to Homs and Salamiyah, in present-day Syria (over 400 miles). From there they got to Somalia, and finally back to Aleppo in Syria. But I couldn’t go there because of the civil war. Eventually she went back to Turkey in the early 1920s.

How did your grandmother get to America?

She came to the U.S. in 1922 from Istanbul. She came over with her aunt and uncle to Ellis Island, and was promised as a bride to my great-aunt’s cousin.

Did you tell people in Turkey what you were doing?

Not in Turkey. I played it low, with small cameras. I didn’t want to carry a big camera with a long lens and look like a professional photographer.

Are there still Armenians in Turkey?

Yes. There’s a fairly large community, though nothing like it used to be. I stayed with relatives of friends while there. But Armenians are definitely looked down upon.

What particularly affected you?

The ancient city of Ani. It’s this haunting heartbreak, a ruined, medieval Armenian town once known as the Land of 1001 Churches. The earliest inscriptions on the walls are from 1031. It’s literally a stone’s throw from the border of (present-day, independent) Armenia. That’s where I kind of lost it, I have to say. To see something so incredibly beautiful in such a state of ruin, so close to Armenia — the Turks could give it back to us without even a thought. It’d be an easy gift. For the 100th anniversary of the genocide, why not give us Ani?

Did you do all this alone?

No. I traveled with my friend Ani Boghikian Kasparian from Detroit, who’s an Armenian scholar. She teaches the language at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Dearborn. We’d been talking about this for years. She did so much for me. She arranged the guides, she arranged the connections.

What’s takeaway from all this?

Had the Armenian Genocide been validated, and Ottoman Turkey forced to recognize and do something about what happened, maybe it wouldn’t have given a permission slip to other atrocities.

You know what Hitler said when planning the holocaust? “Who today remembers the Armenians?”

The Syrian refugees today are just like the Armenian refugees, forced to leave their monuments and homes and history. It’s the same story. The timeliness of all this is horrifying to me.

“This year, the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, has brought an unprecedented level of awareness of the slaughter and deportation of the Armenians, and of my grandfather’s humanitarian efforts to stop the killings,” Robert M. Morgenthau, grandson of U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau said at on Capitol Hill hosted by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation (IRWF) and the  in honor of visiting Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. Robert M. Morgenthau’s full speech is provided below:

“President Sargsyan, Members of Congress, Reverend Clergy, Foundation Board Members, and Friends

I am honored in more ways than I can recount to be asked to accept the Wallenberg Medal on behalf of my grandfather.  The legacy of Raoul Wallenberg holds a very personal significance for my family.  My father, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., was Secretary of the Treasury during the Holocaust.  At a time when as many as 12,000 Hungarian Jews were being deported to certain death every day, he established the War Refugee Board to resettle the refugees and save their lives.  It was Raoul Wallenberg who ultimately would run the Board, and it was his courage and tireless effort that saved 200,000 lives – and provided a model for the kind of humanitarian sacrifice that the world so needs today.

I am honored as well to be in the presence of President Serge Sargsyan.  I can assure you that my grandfather would be especially pleased to know that one day his grandson would share the podium with the President of an independent and free Armenia.

This year, the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, has brought an unprecedented level of awareness of the slaughter and deportation of the Armenians, and of my grandfather’s humanitarian efforts to stop the killings.  What is less well known, but what consumed my grandfather equally, is the sad history of the betrayal of the Armenian people in the quest for self-determination.

Throughout their history, the Armenians showed great courage in resisting dominance by invading armies. The rebellion in Zeitun, the defense of Van, and of course the historic resistance of the Armenians of Musa Dagh, each displayed the determination of a proud people, indomitable in spirit, and unwilling to surrender their faith or their identity.  Yet each time, Ottoman leaders responded with overwhelming force, force that escalated to all-out genocide.

In response, President Woodrow Wilson firmly committed the policy of the United States to the establishment of an Armenian homeland.  This flowed from his Fourteen Points, one of which was the principle of the self-determination of the peoples in the former Ottoman Empire.  The President appointed a commission, the King-Crane Commission, to set forth specific proposals to manifest this basic principle.

In August of 1919, the Commission concluded that the Armenians should inhabit a homeland that restored losses from the atrocities suffered periodically at the hands of the Ottoman Turks from 1894 through 1916. The homeland would comprise the Armenian highlands in Turkey and Russia, with an outlet on the Black Sea.

In August of 1920, Western powers and the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Sevres.  It too affirmed the principle of an Armenian homeland, although a homeland reduced in size from what Woodrow Wilson had envisioned.

But the ink had hardly dried on the treaty when the new Turkish state attacked the Democratic Republic of Armenia and occupied parts of its territory.  Soon, the Soviet Union absorbed the remaining portion.  This land grab, so soon after the Genocide of the Armenians, presented a challenge to the conscience of the world, particularly when a German periodical published the comment of the notorious Enver Pasha:  “What do you think…Did we slaughter them just for fun?”

The response of the world community to this crisis was nothing short of shameful:  the League of Nations capitulated.  Soon there was a new treaty, the Treaty of Lausanne, which made no mention of an Armenian homeland.

This explains why, for eighty years, Armenians suffered under Soviet oppression.  It is why, for eighty years, the Armenian people, who prided themselves on being the world’s first Christian nation, were ruled by an atheist dictatorship.

Today, of course, the Soviet Union is no more, and Armenia is an independent republic.  And yet, as Armenians and their supporters all around the world marched this year for Genocide recognition, they did so under a two-fold phrase:  “I remember…and I demand.”

I leave it to others to untangle the fiercely complicated question of how to make right the injustices of history.  But let us begin by squarely confronting that history.

During the Genocide, my Grandfather witnessed first-hand what happens when the world’s conscience gives way to caution.  He was personally devastated by what he famously termed a campaign of race extermination.  And in the aftermath of that tragedy, even after he returned to the United States, even as he devoted himself to the resettlement of Armenian refugees, his greatest lingering disappointment was that he did not live to see the reestablishment of an independent Armenia.

I have said on other occasions that the principles that have largely animated my own life in public office are those that my grandfather brought back from his service in Anatolia.  I commend them to one and all.  Among those values are all of the freedoms that would later be included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  But there is yet one more value that he taught us, one that gives life to all the rest:  a commitment that, on issues of justice, we shall never give up.

On behalf of my grandfather, I thank you for this great honor.

On October 1, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian participated in a meeting in the UN Headquarters, New York, dedicated to OSCE peacekeeping missions, organised under the auspices of Foreign Ministers of the OSCE Troika – Switzerland, Serbia, and Germany.

In his speech at the discussion, Edward Nalbandian particularly said:

“The attitude of Armenia towards peace-keeping missions can be tested by the geography of our engagement in such past and present missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Mali. I would like to note that in four days Yerevan will host the international conference on peacekeeping operations, assisted by Edmond Mulet, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations.

Speaking here at the UN Headquarters, I would like to once again acknowledge the central role of the United Nations for the maintenance of international peace and security and meanwhile to recall our shared conviction that the OSCE is a primary organization for the peaceful settlement of disputes within its region. It is in this vein that we view the current discussions on the OSCE peace operations – a concept which has yet to be defined within the framework of our Organization.

It is our conviction that it should be guided by and based on the commitments adhered to by the OSCE on the maintenance of peace and security. In this regard, I would like to recall the pledge made at the Astana Summit to increase efforts to resolve existing conflicts in the OSCE area in a peaceful and negotiated manner, within agreed formats.

In the case of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict the agreed format is the Co-chairmanship of the OSCE Minsk Group. Thus, all international, including the OSCE efforts for further addressing the conflict related matters in this case should be implemented through this framework.

The Co-chairmen of the Minsk Group are assisted on the ground by the team, led by the Personal Representative of the Chairman-in-Office, which is the only permanent presence in the conflict zone, monitoring the observance of the cease-fire. There is no doubt that strengthening this presence means enhancing capabilities of the Organization in fostering peace and consolidating the cease-fire on the line of contact and borders. This is a tangible case where further involvement of the Organization can make a real difference on the ground, including through the establishment of an investigative mechanism on the cease-fire violations – a Confidence and security building measure which has long been on the table – proposed and thoroughly supported by the international community.  In their statement of September 28th the co-chairs once again reiterated this proposal.

The political solutions should decide and guide the design and possible deployment of the peacekeeping operations. It has been stated by the Minsk Group Co-chairs on numerous occasions, including on the level of the presidents of the Co-chair countries, that international security guarantees would include a peacekeeping operation as one of the elements of the Basic Principles of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement. It is aimed at separation of armed forces and keeping peace once the political resolution to the conflict is reached. No other mandate or component, including the one related to the police activities is attached to the peacekeeping operation in this particular case.

The situations and challenges of our shared OSCE area, which we are trying to address can be substantially different and there are no universal remedies to fit all of them. The Leaders’ Summit on Peacekeeping held two days ago, here at the UN welcomed the report of the High Level Panel on UN Peace Operations, which warns us “too often mandates and missions are produced on the basis of templates instead of [being] tailored to support situation-specific political strategies”. Tailored made approaches, carefully crafted to avoid harming or intervening the ongoing processes within internationally mandated agreed formats should form the basis of our endeavors”.

Thank you.

The board of scandal-hit Volkswagen meets on Friday to shake up its management.

On the agenda will be choosing a replacement for chief executive Martin Winterkorn, who resigned on Wednesday.

Reports have said that the front-runner for the top job is Porsche chief executive Matthias Mueller.

VW is also expected to dismiss executives tainted by the scandal over the rigging of emissions tests by software in its diesel cars in the US.

Azerbaijan will sue France 2 TV for the program titled Cash Investigation aired September 7.

The report released Monday on France 2 described the country as ‘dictatorship’ and called its President a ‘despot.’

Unhappy with the program, Baku will file a defamation complaint against the channel and its host Elise Lucet, lawyer Olivier Pardo has said.

Turkey is erecting a modular wall along part of its border with Syria as well as reinforcing wire fencing and digging extra ditches after a suspected Islamic State suicide bombing killed 32 mostly young students in a border town this week, Reuters reports.

Turkey’s NATO allies have long expressed concern about control of its border with Syria which in parts runs directly parallel with territory controlled by Islamic State. A suicide bombing on Monday in the southeastern town of Suruc highlighted fears about Syria’s conflict spilling onto Turkish soil.

“Critical sections (of the border) have been identified. Priority will be given to these areas and measures will be taken with all technological capabilities,” Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesman Bulent Arinc told reporters during a break in a cabinet meeting late on Wednesday.

Thousands of foreign fighters are thought to have travelled through Turkey to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq in the past few years, some of them with assistance from Turkish smuggling networks sympathetic to the militants.

The government’s critics say it is acting too late.

A senior government official told Reuters that a 150 km “modular wall”, which can broken down into parts and reassembled elsewhere, would be set up along part of the border, while wire fencing in other parts would be reinforced.

Flood-lighting would be installed along a 118 km stretch, while border patrol roads would be repaired, a package of upgrades which would cost around 230 million lira ($86 million), the official said.

The armed forces were also digging a 365 km long ditch along the border and have deployed some 90 percent of drones and reconnaissance aircraft to the Syrian border, the military said.

Turkey’s armed forces have already stepped up security along parts of the border in recent weeks, as the conflict in Syria involving Kurdish militia fighters, Islamist militants and Syrian security forces intensified.

Around half of the armoured vehicles which patrol Turkey’s borders are along the Syrian frontier, the official said. Half of the 40,000 military personnel who guard Turkey’s borders – including with Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Greece and Bulgaria – are now on the Syrian frontier.

Photo from Hurriyet Daily News

A ferry carrying 189 passengers and crew capsized off the central Philippines in heavy waves on Thursday, killing at least 36 people but the majority of those on board were rescued, the coast guard and police said, Reuters reports.

The MBCA Kim-Nirvana, a motorized outrigger with 173 passengers and 16 crew on board, capsized minutes after leaving the port of Ormoc.

Coast guard spokesman Armand Balilo said 127 people survived, while 26 were still listed as missing.

“Search and rescue operations are ongoing. Initially we learned that it was due to big waves,” said Rey Gozon, director of the office of civil defense for the region.

An Armenian school will be opened in Alfortville, France on July 4 in the presence of the Prime Ministers of Armenia and France Hovik Abrahamian and Manuel Valls, VMTV reports.

This project was conducted by The APCAF (Association for the Promotion of Armenian Culture in France), in partnership with the Association of School and St. Mesrop Alfortville Municipality.

Arabian school is a private school under contract. It covers 1,585 square meters and is built along the Seine. It will open its doors in September 2015 with 300 students from elementary school with a view of opening a college in the future.

The school’s inauguration will be attended by many public and political figures, including French Prime Minister, Mr Manuel Valls, the Prime Minister of Armenia, Mr. Hovik Abrahamyan, the Senator-Mayor, Mr Luc Carvounas, the main sponsor of this project, Mr. Gevorg Arabian, Monsignor Norvan Zakarian, President of APCAF, Bishop Vahan Hovhannessian, Primate of the Diocese of France of the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Deputy of Val-de-Marne, René Rouquet.

Over 1,000 people are expected for this event that will take place between 10:30 and 16:30 on the Komitas Street and around the Seine.

All donors whose donation exceeds € 2,000 will have their name or the name of their choice written on awall inside the establishment.

President Serzh Sargsyan received today Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov. Speaking about the ongoing protests in Armenia against the planned electricity price hike, President Sargsyan said some experts seek to find anti-Russian sentiments in the developments. He said he’s glad that protesters themselves reject these assumptions.

The President informed that Armenia had to make the unpopular decision because of the fluctuation of the currency exchange rate and the rise of the net worth of electric energy. He added that issues of subsidising the cost to needy families have also been taken into consideration. The Government ruled yesterday to raise the monthly allowances for 105 thousand families. The President said the losses of the Electric Networks of Armenia that resulted from possible shortcomings of the company’s activity.

The President said it would be right for the Armenian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission to keep the activity of the Russian companies in Armenia in the focus of attention.

The President noted that it would be correct for the Commission to consider the option of conducting audit in the Distribution Networks of Armenia with the participation of the expert community and representatives of the civil society.