Author: Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS

‘Love of people’: The legacy of this Armenian historian

Emil Lazarian


by: Stefani Booroojian



FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE) – He was born in the Central Valley but left a legacy worldwide.

Richard Gable Hovannisian:  A writer of books, a lecturer, and a documenter of the history of the Armenian people.

“He basically then from the ground up developed the study of Armenian history as we know it in the United States,” said Barlow Der Mugrdechian, the director of Fresno State’s Armenian Studies Program.

Born in Tulare in 1932, Hovannisian’s educational journey took him from Fresno State to Cal State Berkeley and eventually to UCLA where he received his doctorate and taught for 60 years. Der Mugrdechian was his student.

“I loved his classes; we all loved his classes. It was just entertaining in the sense of being able to draw you into history,” he said.

Mugrdechian says Hovannisian devoted his life to writing Armenia’s history when he discovered no such writings existed.  He was instrumental in the creation of Armenian Studies programs at universities including Fresno State, and courageously spoke out at international conferences demanding the recognition of the 1915 Armenian Genocide where one and a half million Armenian lives were lost at the hands of Ottoman Turks.  

“There, American scholars who were taking the Turkish side would be talking and saying this wasn’t a genocide and everything and he would be standing up and challenging them,” Der Mugrdechian said.

Nazik Messerlian of Fresno was Hovannisian’s sister-in-law. She and her sister, who later became his wife, first met him in college. She describes him as kind, loving, and passionate about the Armenian cause.

“His love of people was I think the foundation to all of this,” she said.

Hovannisian received honors from the Armenian Church and many organizations. A crowning achievement:  recording close to a thousand oral histories from Armenian Genocide survivors– the collection is now housed at the Shoah Foundation at USC.

While retired from teaching, Hovannisian never stopped working. His most recent work was published just last year.

His legacy lives on in the generations impacted by Armenian studies in schools teaching a history documented extensively by the lifetime of work of Richard Hovannisian.

Hovannisian had family in Fresno, and they say he always loved his local ties. A national funeral will be held for him on Saturday, July 22 at Holy Trinity Apostolic Church in Fresno at 11:00 a.m.  


Armenia PM Accuses Azerbaijan of Karabakh ‘Genocide’, Warns of New War (+Links)

Emil Lazarian

Published By: Pritha Mallick

AFP

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan warned Friday of the risk of a new war with Azerbaijan, accusing Baku of “genocide” in the breakaway Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Baku and Yerevan have fought two wars over the mountainous enclave and the signature of a peace treaty remains a distant prospect.

Talks under the mediation of the European Union, United States, and Russia have brought about little progress.

“So long as a peace treaty has not been signed and such a treaty has not been ratified by the parliaments of the two countries, of course, a (new) war (with Azerbaijan) is very likely,” Pashinyan told AFP.

Tensions escalated earlier in July when Azerbaijan temporarily shut the Lachin corridor, the sole road linking Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia.

The closure sparked concerns over a humanitarian crisis in the region, which experiences shortages of food, medicines, and energy.

“We’re talking not about a preparation of genocide, but an ongoing process of genocide,” Pashinyan told AFP in an interview, referring to the Karabakh crisis.

The growing diplomatic engagement of the European Union and United States in the Caucasus has irked traditional regional power broker Russia.

As the latest round of peace talks on July 15 in Brussels failed to bring about a breakthrough, Pashinyan said that both the West and Russia needed to increase pressure on Baku to lift its blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh.

“If, according to the logic of some circles in the West, Russia is not meeting all of our expectations because it is not fulfilling its obligations, similarly Russia also tells us (the same) about the West,” he said.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been at the centre of a decades-long dispute between the two countries, which have fought two wars over the mountainous territory –- in the 1990s and in 2020.

In autumn 2020, a Russian-brokered ceasefire deal saw Armenia cede swathes of territories it had controlled for decades, while Moscow deployed peacekeepers to the Lachin Corridor to ensure free passage between Armenia and Karabakh.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)

https://www.news18.com/world/armenia-pm-accuses-azerbaijan-of-karabakh-genocide-warns-of-new-war-8395849.html

ALSO READ

https://www.barrons.com/news/armenia-pm-accuses-azerbaijan-of-karabakh-genocide-8a25743


Artsakh calls for tribunal for Azeri regime, international recognition based on Remedial Secession to prevent genocide

Emil Lazarian

 13:39,

YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS. The Speaker of Parliament of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) Artur Tovmasyan has called on the international community to launch a special criminal tribunal for the leadership of Azerbaijan regarding their unprecedented violence and crimes against humanity in Nagorno Karabakh.

“By creating the most sophisticated concentration camp in a territory of nearly 3000 square kilometers, Azerbaijan has been testing the latest achievements of science on the citizens of the Artsakh (NKR) Republic since 12 December 2022, aimed at dehumanizing an entire nation, the population of the Republic of Artsakh,” Tovmasyan said in a statement.

“The population of 120+30 (forcefully displaced) thousand of a freedom-loving country is being subjected to humiliation, famine and threats of physical extermination every day for eight months, living without electricity, gas, fuel and medication. After WWII, when the international community condemned and stipulated provisions in international law ruling out the Nazi Germany’s crimes in the future, it was difficult to imagine that our people would face the threat of physical extermination in the 21st century with new methods, and that it wouldn’t even receive an intervention by the international community to prevent a great human tragedy,” reads the statement addressed to the international community.

“At the same time, taking into account the provisions of international law related to violence and aggression by an aggressor country against self-proclaimed independent countries, we call on responsible and relevant international intergovernmental institutions to launch the process of international recognition of the Artsakh Republic, as the most practical way to prevent genocide and the forced displacement of our people from our homeland,” he added.

Tovmasyan called on international intergovernmental institutions to launch a special criminal tribunal to try the Azerbaijani leadership for creating a modern concentration camp in the territory of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) and regularly destroying the indigenous people of Nagorno Karabakh.

The Speaker expressed hope that his statement will receive a response and that the international community and intergovernmental organizations will not surrender to aggressors and murderers, but will support the people of Nagorno Karabakh. The only way to avoid the abovementioned dangers is through the recognition of Artsakh’s independence based on the principle of Remedial Secession, Tovmasyan said.

Lyle Shelton of ADH TV Interviews Armenian National Committee of Australia Executive Director on Artsakh Blockade

Emil Lazarian
     
Thursday,

SYDNEY: On Friday, 14th July 2023, ADH TV, co-hosted by renowned Australian radio broadcaster Alan Jones and high-profile Christian advocate Lyle Shelton, covered Azerbaijan’s over 200-day siege of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) in an interview with the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) Executive Director, Michael Kolokossian.

Shelton interviewed Kolokossian in a 12-minute segment covering the Australian-Armenian community’s disappointment over the Australian Government’s harrowing silence as 120,000 Christian Armenians remain trapped and under siege at the hands of brutal petro-dictatorship Azerbaijan.

Shelton, the National Director of Family First, also shared to his audience the details of ANC-AU’s Parliamentary Petition calling on the Albanese Government to speak out against Azerbaijan’s blockade of Artsakh.

Following a brief background to the roots of the conflict, Kolokossian praised the people of Artsakh for their commitment to upholding their human right to self-determination.

“The people of Artsakh have lived on this land for so many centuries, and they refuse to leave their homes and property… no matter what the Azerbaijani regime tries to throw at them… the people of Artsakh remain committed to that right to self-determination which is upheld under Article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” Kolokossian said.

“They fundamentally believe that they have the right to live in their land, to live in a democracy and are not willing to allow a regime like Azerbaijan, which has been run by the same family for three decades now, to threaten them with an iron fist.”

In response to queries over the Albanese Government’s reluctance to speak out against the crisis, Kolokossian spoke out against Canberra’s silence, saying: “The reasons for that [the government silence] are not justifiable, you said it, it’s a humanitarian crisis, we’re not asking for the Australian Government to comment on the territorial dispute between the Republic of Artsakh and the dictatorship of Azerbaijan.”

Kolokossian added, “We’re asking the Australian Government to do one simple thing, stand with the International Court of Justice, the top judicial organ of the United Nations, which has ordered provisional measures on Azerabaijan to open the corridor. It’s as simple as that.”

Kolokossian urged viewers to join the Armenian-Australian community in signing the Parliamentary Petition, calling on the House of Representatives to urge the Australian Government to stand in line with the ICJ and prevent a second Armenian Genocide.

The full interview can be viewed by clicking here.


https://www.anc.org.au/news/Media-Releases/Lyle-Shelton-of-ADH-TV-Interviews-Armenian-National-Committee-of-Australia-Executive-Director-on-Artsakh-Blockade

Role of Russian peacekeepers paramount amid tensions in Nagorno-Karabakh — diplomat

Emil Lazarian
 TASS 
Russia –
Commenting on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement that Russian peacekeepers must leave Nagorno-Karabakh by 2025, Maria Zakharova noted that Ankara is not a party to the November 9, 2020, joint statement from the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan

MOSCOW, July 20. /TASS/. The work of the Russian peacekeeping mission in Nagorno-Karabakh is of the utmost importance amid the continued tensions in the region, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during a briefing Thursday.

“Russian peacekeepers continue to play an important stabilizing role in Nagorno-Karabakh; their main function is to uphold the ceasefire regime,” she said. “Considering the persisting tense situation in the region, their work is as important as ever.”

Commenting on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s statement that Russian peacekeepers must leave Nagorno-Karabakh by 2025, Zakharova noted that Ankara is not a party to the November 9, 2020, joint statement from the leaders of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The diplomat pointed out that the Russian peacekeeping contingent was deployed in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict area based specifically on this document, and it was this document that outlined the terms of the contingent’s stay in the region and the parameters for its potential five-year extension.

“The upholding of peace in the South Caucasus meets the interests of both Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as regional [powers], including Turkey. In this regard, we note the important cooperation with our Turkish partners within the joint Russian-Turkish Center in the Aghdam District,” the diplomat added.

https://tass.com/world/1649699

WATCH: Nagorno Karabakh struggles to survive disastrous humanitarian consequences as grocery store shelves go empty

Emil Lazarian

 10:16,

STEPANAKERT, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. A video filmed in Stepanakert city’s largest supermarket shows the disastrous humanitarian consequences of the Azerbaijani blockade of Nagorno Karabakh – all shelves are empty.

The video was released by Human Rights Defender of Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) Gegham Stepanyan’s office.

In a statement released on Thursday, Stepanyan called for an immediate international intervention to help stop the suffering of the people of Nagorno Karabakh.

“Humanitarian situation in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is deteriorating hour by hour. All shops and groceries are empty. Complete absence of food and basic necessities inflict sufferings on 120,000 people, including 30,000 children. The Ombudsman’s Office reports from the ground, documenting the disastrous humanitarian consequences and asking for immediate international intervention,” Stepanyan said in a statement.

Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Nagorno Karabakh with Armenia and the rest of the world, has been blocked by Azerbaijan since late 2022. The Azerbaijani blockade constitutes a gross violation of the 2020 Nagorno Karabakh ceasefire agreement, which established that the 5km-wide Lachin Corridor shall be under the control of Russian peacekeepers. Furthermore, on February 22, 2023 the United Nations’ highest court – the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – ordered Azerbaijan to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure unimpeded movement of persons, vehicles and cargo along the Lachin Corridor in both directions.  Azerbaijan has been ignoring the order ever since. Moreover, Azerbaijan then illegally installed a checkpoint on Lachin Corridor. The blockade has led to shortages of essential products such as food and medication. Azerbaijan has also cut off gas and power supply into Nagorno Karabakh, with officials warning that Baku seeks to commit ethnic cleansing against Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh. Hospitals have suspended normal operations and the Red Cross has been facilitating the medical evacuations of patients.

[see video]

Central Bank of Armenia: exchange rates and prices of precious metals – 20-07-23

Emil Lazarian

 17:26,

YEREVAN, 20 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs “Armenpress” that today, 20 July, USD exchange rate down by 0.99 drams to 386.29 drams. EUR exchange rate down by 1.65 drams to 432.76 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.01 drams to 4.26 drams. GBP exchange rate down by 2.09 drams to 498.16 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 58.52 drams to 24532.88 drams. Silver price up by 0.82 drams to 310.67 drams.

Construction in full swing at Armenia-Turkey border Margara checkpoint

Emil Lazarian

 13:24,

YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS. Armenia is carrying out active construction work in the Margara checkpoint of the Armenian-Turkish border, the Chairman of the State Revenue Committee Rustam Badasyan told reporters on July 20.

He said the construction will be completed soon. “I can’t mention a concrete date, but soon,” he said when asked about the timeframes of completing the construction.

Armenia and Turkey had previously agreed to open the land border for citizens of third countries and diplomatic passport holders.

The border was to be opened in June but the process has been delayed.

“This question is beyond the jurisdiction of the State Revenue Committee,” Badasyan said when asked whether or not the border would be opened for citizens of third countries and diplomatic passport holders after the completion of the construction. “Our job is to ensure the conditions for customs control at the border crossing point, and that’s what we are doing,” he added.

AW: Handwoven kilims by students exhibited at Haigazian University

Emil Lazarian
 Guest Contributor Diaspora 0

Workshop participants with their handwoven kilims during the exhibit at Haigazian University

BEIRUT—On Wednesday, July 19, an exhibit was held in the Haigazian University (HU) Arthur Matossian Gallery featuring the handwoven kilims of 35 students from various Lebanese Armenian schools. The event was attended by the students, along with parents, teachers and principals.

The kilims were the product of a nine-day-long “Weave your own kilim” workshop held at HU and organized by the Student Life Office in collaboration with the Hovhannes Sharambeyan Folk Arts Museum in Armenia.

Between July 5 and 18, students from the Armenian Evangelical and United Armenian Colleges, Armenian Evangelical Shamlian-Tatigian,  Armenian Evangelical Central High, Armenian Catholic Holy Cross, AGBU and Vahan Tekeyan schools participated in the workshop. They learned the skills of weaving the kilim and actually wove the pieces which were featured in the exhibition.

During the nine three-hour sessions, the students eagerly connected with carpet weaving and wove more than one kilim. Some even started their third kilim. Others created their own designs and chose the colors of the Armenia-made wool, while some began to weave their own names. The weaving process also continued after the sessions, as the students excitedly took their unfinished works to their homes.

Some of the handwoven kilims created by the workshop participants

Alongside the student sessions in the morning, a five-session weaving workshop was organized in the afternoons where 13 adults participated. Some of their kilims were also displayed.

In all, 75 kilims by all age groups were exhibited as products of the workshops.