The California
Courier Online, March 23, 2023
1- Legal
Experts Ask International Court
To Probe Turkey’s
Crimes Against Humanity
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Nayiri
Baghdasarian Among 2023 Women of the Year
in CA 48th
Assembly District
3- Chamian
Casts Serkis in Netflix Psychological Crime Thriller
‘Luther:
The Fallen Sun’
4- Director of
Photography John Guleserian
Shoots
Comedy-Horror Film ‘Cocaine Bear’
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1- Legal
Experts Ask International Court
To Probe Turkey’s
Crimes Against Humanity
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Several newspapers
announced earlier this month that a major complaint has been submitted to the
International Criminal Court (ICC) against Turkey. A group of European legal
experts compiled a massive file which included “witness testimonies giving
details of torture, state sponsored kidnapping, and wrongful imprisonment” by
the Turkish government of its 200,000 opponents.
Both the European Court of Human Rights and U.N. Working
Group on Arbitrary Detention had concluded that a large portion of the
imprisonments and detentions by Turkey were a violation of the European
Convention on Human Rights. They are considered crimes against humanity. The
new complaint was delivered to the ICC prosecutor Karim Khan on February 9, but
made public on March 1, 2023.
The 4,000-page dossier was prepared by the Belgian law firm
Van Steenbrugge Advocaten, Belgium-based NGO Turkey Tribunal, and the European
judges association.
“Turkish officials have committed crimes against humanity
against hundreds of thousands of opponents of the Erdogan regime,” the
submission said. “These crimes amount to a ‘widespread and systematic attack
against a civilian population’, meeting the threshold for the ICC to launch proceedings
against high ranking officials of the Erdogan regime.”
Even though Turkey is not a signatory to the Rome Statute
that had established the ICC, the Court has jurisdiction to pursue these crimes
since the Turkish government has committed some of the crimes on the territory
of 45 ICC member states: Afghanistan, Albania, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium,
Bosnia Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Chad, Congo, Democratic
Republic of the Congo, Denmark, France, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea,
Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia,
Netherlands, Niger, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Peru, Poland, Republic of
Moldova, Romania, Senegal, Switzerland, Tajikistan, The Gambia, Tunisia,
Uganda, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela, and Zambia.
The complaint states that there were 17 cases of enforced
disappearance in which victims were abducted from Kenya,
Cambodia, Gabon, Albania,
Bulgaria, Moldova, Mongolia
and Switzerland and taken
back to Turkey.
These abductees were accused of being followers of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based
Muslim preacher. Pres. Erdogan supported Gulen for many years until their
relationship soured. Thousands of Gulen’s followers, including 9,100 police
officers, were subsequently fired from their jobs and arrested.
Osman Karaca was seized on October 14, 2019, in Cambodia where
he was a school teacher. “After being held incommunicado for four days, Karaca
was handed over to Turkish authorities who flew him back to Turkey on a
small government jet. He was convicted of leading an armed terrorist group in
the 2016 coup attempt, despite the fact he had left Turkey
for Cambodia
in 2002,” The Guardian reported.
Karaca is one of many Turks abducted from overseas and
charged for being a ‘terrorist.’ The legal claim filed against Turkey at the
ICC contained statements on the torture of 800 abductees, describing “in detail
how torture has been inflicted on a large and consistent scale.”
“This should be investigated,” said Johan Vande Lanotte, a former
Belgian deputy prime minister and human rights law professor, who helped set up
the Turkish Tribunal. He is leading the effort to persuade the ICC to open an
investigation. “The universal basic principles of international law are being
violated…. Important members of the (Turkish) government cannot deny they are
responsible, because they proclaimed their responsibility proudly.”
The Turkey Tribunal stated that it documented “59 cases of
extraterritorial and domestic Enforced Disappearance, relating to 109 persons.
While the Turkish state has always denied involvement in domestic
disappearances, authorities have consistently boasted about illegal abductions
made overseas. Most recently, in July 2021, President Erdogan gave a press
conference next to an image of a Turkish teacher proclaiming that he had been
abducted from a foreign country. In an arrogant demonstration of impunity, the
published image of the abducted person showed clear signs of torture, and he
later underwent surgery to treat his broken arm.”
The Turkey Tribunal added: “Concerning the Imprisonments in
Violation of Fundamental Rules of International Law, official Turkish
statistics show that investigations into alleged membership of a ‘terrorist
organization’ were launched against 2,217,000 persons in the period 2015-2021;
560,000 persons were put on trial and 374,000 persons were convicted, 270,000
of whom were found to be members of a terrorist organization.”
Furthermore, according to the Turkey Tribunal, “Official
Turkish statistics show that 129,410 public servants have been dismissed and
19,962 teachers had their teaching licenses cancelled, since 2016. In total,
234,419 passports were withdrawn in relation to arbitrary investigations
against the alleged members of the Gülen movement. Of these, 155,000 relate to
persons against whom no judicial action was launched, such as, for instance,
the spouses of the persons against whom an investigation or persecution was
launched.”
Former Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Vande Lanotte
concluded: “We had the United Nations Working Group on Forced Disappearances
look into this, the UN Human Rights Committee, the European Court of Human
Rights, and even judges in Turkey
itself, and nothing has been done, so this is the last possibility for
justice.”
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2- Nayiri Baghdasarian Among 2023
Women of the Year
in CA 48th
Assembly District
As part of Women’s History Month, Assemblywoman Blanca E.
Rubio announced a number of honorees for 2023 Women of the Year in the 48th
Assembly District, including Nayiri Baghdasarian. “Each honoree was
hand-selected by our residents who’ve witnessed their unwavering commitment to
service in the San Gabriel
Valley. We are proud to
honor such empowering women in our district and are eager to celebrate them,”
said Rubio.
Nayiri Baghdassarian serves as the Director of Public Policy
for the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership. She serves as the primary
liaison with San Gabriel
Valley elected officials
and oversees all political advocacy and engagement efforts. As Director,
Baghdassarian manages the Partnership’s Legislative Action Committee and
travels to Sacramento and Washington, D.C.
to advocate on critical legislation on behalf of the Partnership. Prior to
joining the Partnership, Bahgdassarian served as Senior Consultant for the CA
State Assembly Democratic Office of Outreach and Communications where she
worked on communication programs for State Assemblymembers. She also worked on political campaigns on both the
local and state levels and for the CA State Senate.
A San Gabriel Valley native, Baghdassarian earned degrees from Citrus College, California
State University Long Beach, and Claremont Graduate University.
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3- Chamian Casts Serkis in Netflix
Psychological Crime Thriller
‘Luther: The
Fallen Sun’
By Jenny Yettem
Luther: The Fallen Sun—a feature film continuation of the
award-winning British psychological crime thriller series Luther—starring Idris
Elba as DCI John Luther, and Andy Serkis as his nemesis David Robey, was
released on Netflix on March 10, 2023 and has been in the top ten of new
releases for the last several weeks. The television series has been airing on
BBC One since 2010.
In Luther: The Fallen Sun, Andy Serkis haunts as Luther’s
adversary, a wealthy and psychopathic millionaire moonlighting as a prolific
serial killer, who uses surveillance technology to manipulate and kill
civilians.
The film takes viewers to a posh London loft, a chilling
empty mansion in Estonia—and inside the homes of numerous unnamed civilians who
use their laptops for leisure and are prey to Robey’s devious machinations.
Serkis— who is best known for his CGI characters such as
Gollum in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, and King Kong in the eponymous
2005 remake—is of Iraqi-Armenian descent. His family name was originally
Sarkisian.
Serkis—who directed the 2018 adventure drama Mowgli: Legend
of the Jungle—is the eigth highest-grossing actor of all time. He has received
an Empire Award and two Saturn Awards for his motion-capture acting.
Much of the credit for Serkis and Elba
starring in the film is owed to renowned Armenian-American casting director
Denise Chamian. Throughout her nearly 30-year career, Chamian has amassed more
than 140 casting credits to her name including Eyes Wide Shut, Miss Congeniality,
Minority Report, The Ring, Top Gun: Maverick, the Maze Runner franchise, the
Transformers franchise, and the Pirates of the Carribean franchise, among many
other blockbuster films. She is also recently credited as casting director for
the critically acclaimed Netflix series Sex/Life, starring Sarah Shahi and Adam
Demos.
She most recently shared a 2023 BAFTA Award for Best Casting
with Nikki Barrett for their casting direction in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis. She has
also been honored in the past by the Arpa Foundation for Film Music and Arts
(AFFMA), an Armenian-founded, Los-Angeles based organization that hosts an
annual international film festival.
Elba, who also produced the
play, said the part of Robey—a narcissistic psychopath who delights in manipulating
and murdering people—was well-suited for a chameleon like Serkis. “I think he’s
just mind-blowing as a talent—actor, director, innovator of film. And, you
know, he’s the nicest guy but what’s interesting is that he has this mysterious
side, a twinkle in his eyes and you’re not sure. He’s always got some mad thing
going on in his head,” said Elba. “So it’s
really intriguing to talk to him because you’re not sure if you’re getting it
all because he’s such a mad genius. But he brings that to Robey. Robey is
persuasive, likable, a people reader. It really takes a sophisticated actor to
pull that off while making him quite scary and unpredictable.”
Director Jamie Payne said the success of the Luther series
is partly attributed to how strong the villain of each story is. To hear his
description of the maniacal Robey, one can’t help but remember how the
cave-dwelling Gollum was at once kind and lovable in his almost lost humanity,
but also teeth-bared treacherous and murderous in his attempt to both help and
thwart Frodo Baggins from destroying the One Ring.
“Neil has created one of his darkest and most challenging
villains yet, and I needed a brilliant actor to give him flesh. Andy is one of
our most talented and committed actors,” said Payne. “We also know that he
isn’t afraid of extremes within his characterizations. But the truth is, Andy
can only do that if he understands the emotional heart of a character. He
wasn’t really interested in playing a two-dimensional, mustache-twirling
villain. He needed to understand the humanity of Robey. The balance he found
between monster and human is extraordinarily bold and brilliant.”
Serkis himself said that he felt that juxtaposition from the
first time he read the script, which is why he accepted the gruesome role.
“When I read the part, it immediately made me feel like this would be an
extraordinary ride to go on. I’ve not been a stranger to playing some very,
very edgy and real life characters who have trod down the dark end of the scale
of moral latitude. This really ranked with that. And actually I felt like I
needed a shower once I read the script. It really made me wonder, Do I really
want to visit this character? Because whenever you take on a role, in order for
the story to be worth telling, you have to find the humanity that an audience
is going to somehow relate to, no matter how dark that character is. That was
the challenge. I accepted the challenge and it’s been an amazing ride,” said
Serkis.
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4- Director of Photography John
Guleserian
Shoots
Comedy-Horror Film ‘Cocaine Bear’
By Jenny Yettem
The lights darkened in the theater, and my daughter grabbed
my arm as the top-billed cast and crew of Cocaine Bear floated across the
screen—“Mom, did you see? There was an Armenian name!”
It was Director of Photography John Guleserian, whose
previous credits include the 2021 reboot of the horror flick Candyman, and a
slew of romantic dramas and comedies such as He’s All That, Happiest Season,
Before We Go, and Like Crazy.
With a name like Cocaine Bear, we were prepared for the
level of campy hilarity that would ensue as the ensemble cast of 18 characters
ends up in the Chattahoochee forest where they encounter the black bear that
had accidentally ingested (and had become increasingly addicted to) cocaine
that had been dropped from an airplane by a drug dealer.
Cocaine Bear is utterly ridiculous, campy and absurd in the
best of ways, and is sure to join the pantheon of comedy-horror cult classics
like Final Destination, Nightmare on Elm
Street, Sharknado, Piranha, and Anaconda.
What made the film especially enjoyable was the
cinematography, which is owed to Guleserian. In the most simplistic terms,
directors of photography are responsible for the all the visual elements that
comprise the look and feel of a film. And in those same broad strokes, most
moviegoers simply take stock of the sum without realizing the magnitude of the
parts—which, second only to the director, are entirely the work of the director
of photography. With the largest crew on set, the director of photography takes
their interpretation of the script and determines everything from the type of
camera to use, to shooting angles and camera movements, to lighting, framing,
color and filters to develop the film’s tone and mood.
Guleserian aspired to be a filmmaker from a young age. He
worked as an ice cream truck driver before studying cinematography at college,
first as an undergraduate at Columbia College Chicago and then graduate school
at the AFI Conservatory. While studying, he spent his spare time, he says,
“shooting short films for any director that would let me” to gain
experience.
The film is set in 1985 and starts with a montage of
substance abuse commercials from that era including Nancy Reagan in a “Just Say
No” ad, and the unforgettable Partnership for a Drug Free America
egg-to-skillet warning that, “This is your brain on drugs.”
We’re taken from the soaring landscapes and assorted flora
and fauna across the national forest, to a budding adolescent girl’s bedroom,
to the police station where a detective is pursuing the notorious cocaine
cartel, to a forest ranger’s station—and every last detail is absolutely
spot-on, vivid, accurate to the period. And where this film may have gone awry
as a first-person mockumentary (think Blair Witch Project), the effort in
making this film so visually appealing and stylistic gives the viewer a big
picture opportunity to really enjoy the bombastic humor.
The over two hours absolutely fly by in this film that is
loosely inspired by the true story of the “Cocaine Bear,” an American black
bear that ingested nearly 75 lb (34 kg) of lost cocaine that had been dropped
out of an airplane by a convicted drug smuggler. The bear, which died sometime
after consuming the cocaine, was found three months later in northern Georgia
alongside 40 opened plastic containers of cocaine. The film’s plot differs from
real-life events in a number of ways—most notably that the real-life Cocaine
Bear is not known to have killed anyone, and what transpired in the time
leading up to its death is unknown.
Directed by Elizabeth Banks, the film was theatrically
released in the United
States on February 24 by Universal Pictures
and stars Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden
Ehrenreich, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Margo Martindale, and Ray
Liotta. The film is dedicated to Liotta, who died in May 2022
Cocaine Bear has so far grossed $75 million worldwide
against a $30–35 million budget.
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