The California Courier Online, March 21, 2019
1 - Church Saves AGBU Center in Toronto
In a Last Minute Financial Arrangement
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Healing Wounds or Increasing Power? Erdogan Sends First
Tweet in Armenian
3 - Armenian, Georgian, Russian Writing Found on Guns of NZ Mosque
4- Pyunic Holds Successful Fundraiser In Los Angeles
5- Through Her Podcast, Lara Vanian Explores
What it Means to be 'Armenian Enough'
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1 - Church Saves AGBU Center in Toronto
In a Last Minute Financial Arrangement
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
This week’s article is about a major controversy in the Armenian
community of Toronto, Canada, which has been fortunately resolved for
now.
On October 30, 2018, the AGBU Toronto Chapter issued a statement,
announcing that it could no longer afford to pay its Center’s
operational cost which “has become staggering,”
The AGBU Chapter further announced that it has received an offer from
the Centennial College to buy the AGBU Center. Subsequently, it became
known that the price for the AGBU Center was 8.5 million Canadian
dollars. The Central Board—headquartered in New York City—had endorsed
the decision to sell the property which was built in 1981.
The immediate impact of this potential sale was on the operations of
the adjacent Holy Trinity Armenian Church whose members had used both
the parking lot and the facilities of the AGBU Center. Furthermore,
the Church had “the first right of refusal” to acquire the AGBU
property which meant that if the Church chose to or could afford to
purchase the AGBU Center, it had the priority to do so before its sale
to the Centennial College, under the same terms.
On November 10, 2018, the AGBU Chapter issued a second statement
expressing its regret that “a few have chosen to mischaracterize the
recent announcement” regarding the potential sale of the AGBU Center
to the Centennial College. The AGBU Chapter further stated that “while
we understand that some did not like this decision, it is neither fair
nor constructive to react with information intended to mislead the
greater Toronto community, particularly those involved with the
church.”
In response, the Diocese of Canada and the Holy Trinity Armenian
Church issued a joint statement on November 19, 2018, describing the
AGBU Chapter’s two statements as “futile attempts for
self-justification. Moreover, they contained comments that were
intended to mislead and divide our community. In either case, they
failed. Clearly, these statements are void of genuine feelings for a
healthy community and are a reflection of dictated undemocratic
decisions with no transparency.”
Confused by the contentious press releases, the Toronto Armenian
community tried to find out what exactly was going on behind closed
doors. The absence of concrete information triggered plenty of rumors.
The concern was that Toronto Armenians would lose one of its main
centers. The rumor mill was fueled by AGBU’s previous decisions to
close down Armenian schools, such as the Melkonian Educational
Institute in Cyprus, even though the Toronto AGBU Chapter had
announced that after the sale of its Center, it would move to a new
more centralized location for the community in Toronto.
The other unusual situation was the public feud between AGBU and the
Diocese which normally enjoy the best of relations around the world.
Furthermore, Catholicos of All Armenians, Karekin II, the spiritual
leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, is also the Honorary Central
Board member of the AGBU. The Catholicos could have easily mediated
the conflict between the two institutions, if it had become necessary.
On November 11, 2018, the Holy Trinity Armenian Church convened a
special membership meeting under the presidency of the Primate, Bishop
Abgar Hovakimyan. The congregation adopted a resolution committing to
raise the necessary 8.5 million Canadian dollars by January 29, 2019,
in less than three months, to purchase the AGBU Center. A Mandated
Committee was formed to that effect. The Church announcement stated
that “Bishop Hovakimyan, in support of fundraising, made an impressive
gesture by donating his Panagia and Crosier as the first donation to
the fundraising drive.”
To everyone’s surprise, the Holy Trinity Armenian Church issued an
announcement on January 29, 2019, confirming that the Diocese has
“exercised its right of first refusal to purchase the Armenian General
Benevolent Union (AGBU) property.” This unexpected and miraculous
development raised a new round of questions as to how the Church was
able to raise the large sum of 8.5 million Canadian dollars to
purchase the property in such a short time. Inquiries to the Church
for some details went unanswered, fueling more rumors as to the true
source of the funding for the purchase of the AGBU Center.
After several more emails and phone calls to the Church and its
Mandated Committee, Ara Boyajian, a member of the Committee, was kind
enough to respond. Initially, Boyajian wrote to me that “the AGBU
property next to the HTA [Holy Trinity Armenian] Church in Toronto was
purchased by the Diocese and registered in the name of the Diocese. In
90 days the Diocese secured the required financing, exercised its
right of first refusal, and completed the 8.5 million [Canadian]
dollar transaction on Feb 28, 2019.”
When asked for further details, Boyajian and the Mandated Committee
disclosed to me the following information:
“1) The Diocese was able to secure the financing of the project, which
of course means that it got a Loan, purchased the AGBU property, and
registered it in the name of the Diocese.”
“2) The Loan is secured by a 5-year term mortgage using only the
subject property as collateral. The financiers currently want to
remain anonymous, and the Diocese is obliged to respect their wishes.”
“3) The Diocese’s own feasibility study and the cash flow projections
ensure that over the next five years the Diocese will head lease the
premises and be able to carry the property, including making the
interest payments. This will include any loss of income due to
granting AGBU the right to continue its operation and activities in
the building free of charge for eleven months, at absolutely no cost
to AGBU.”
“4) The principal amount of the Loan will be due in five years. This
will provide enough time for the Diocese to strategize and plan to
undertake a much needed project which will benefit the Toronto
community at large.”
In a follow-up email, Boyajian explained that the term “head lease” in
the above point 3 means: “a Tenant leases the entire leasable space
from the Landlord and pays rent to the Landlord, or in this case to
the Diocese as the owner of the building. Parallel to securing the
financier(s), the Diocese was able to find, negotiate and sign a ‘head
lease’ with a reputable Tenant prior to the purchase (during the 90
day Right of First Refusal period), to enable the Diocese for the next
five years to cover all the expenses of the building, including the
interest payments of the Loan. This was supported by a Feasibility
Study and Cash Flow Projections.”
Boyajian’s answers clarify that the Holy Trinity Armenian Church will
pay the interest only on the 8.5 million loan for five years, after
which the entire loan amount will become due and has to be either paid
or refinanced.
The most important point is that the Church leaders were able to
perform a financial miracle in a very short time and save the AGBU
Center—a major achievement for the Armenian community of Toronto!
Finally, it would be prudent for all Armenian organizations worldwide
to become as transparent as possible in dealing with community
properties and issues to avoid unnecessary rumors and the loss of
trust.
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2 - Healing Wounds or Increasing Power? Erdogan Sends First
Tweet in Armenian
By Cristina Maza
A little more than 100 years after the Ottoman Turks killed about 1.5
million of the empire’s Armenian citizens, Turkey’s president tweeted
in Armenian.
On Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan surprised Twitter
users with a message in the language of Turkey’s small neighbor
Armenia, with whom Ankara has had a tense relationship since World War
I.
“I was deeply saddened by the death of the Armenian patriarch of
Turkey, the honorable Mesrob Mutafyan. I offer my condolences to his
family, relatives and our Armenian citizens,” Erdogan tweeted on
Friday, March 8, in Armenian, in a message directed at the estimated
60,000 Armenians living in Turkey today.
The tweet was written following the death of the Armenian Patriarch
Mesrob Mutafyan, who died after having early onset dementia for more
than a decade. His death will pave the way for the election of a
replacement, something Turkey’s small but influential Armenian
population has been requesting for years.
Erdogan’s message was the first in Armenian by a Turkish head of state
on a major platform like Twitter. That fact, coupled with recent
overtures by the new Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who
suggested that diplomatic relations could potentially be
re-established between the two countries, raised questions about
whether the frosty relationship was starting to thaw. Erdogan has only
once before released a message in Armenian, and never to his 13.5
million Twitter followers.
“It is in my memory the first time that a Turkish head of state has
expressed condolences in Armenian and in such a visible and public
way. I am not sure if he has done anything similar in other minority
languages, I would be surprised if he has, so this is indeed quite
interesting,” Artyom Tonoyan, a research associate at University of
Minnesota, told Newsweek.
But some experts argued that, far from a move toward reconciliation or
inclusivity, Erdogan’s message was a political power play. With a
single tweet, Turkey’s president was aiming to influence internal
factors in his country, not alter the relationship between Ankara and
Yerevan, analysts said.
“Erdogan is both a populist and simultaneously wants extreme control,”
Vicken Cheterian, author of the book Open Wounds: Armenians, Turks,
and a Century of Genocide, told Newsweek. “In the last years, he tried
to please the Armenian community in Turkey, [while] at the same time
trying to control the major Armenian institution in Turkey, the
Armenian Patriarchate.”
“While Patriarch Mesorb was ill, he did not permit elections to select
a new head of the church, thus keeping at its head someone who was
suitable to Ankara. The tweet comes in this context,” Cheterian
continued.
Bedross Der Matossian, author of the book Shattered Dreams of
Revolution: From Liberty to Violence in the Late Ottoman Empire,
agreed that the tweet was aimed at influencing the election for a new
patriarch. He noted that Turkey’s Armenian community was split between
those who supported the government’s role in choosing a new patriarch
and those who didn’t.
“On February 21, a group of 72 Armenian writers, journalists and
artists released a statement in which they said they desire social
harmony, and that harmony would only emerge when a legal election of a
patriarch happened in a fair manner,” said Der Matossian.
“Armenians are an important minority in Turkey. It has to do with the
genocide, it has to do with Turkish denial, it has to do with
criticism of the Turkish government and the constant active policy of
denial that it pursues against the Armenians,” he continued. “So these
are politics, not a huge gesture… It’s politics because [Erdogan]
wants to be shown as a tolerant leader who cares about his own flock.”
Erdogan has repeatedly said that Turkey could not accept the label of
genocide, but he had offered condolences for the events of World War
I. “It is Turkey’s conscientious and ethical responsibility to share
the historical pain of our Armenian citizens,” Erdogan said in a
statement last year.
Some argued that Erdogan needed Turkey’s Armenian population to
bolster his image.
“The votes from the most influential Christian community of the
country could be a way to diversify the political image of the ruling
regime, both locally and internationally,” Varuzhan Geghamyan, a
scholar focusing on Turkey, told Newsweek. “Another symbolic
importance lies in Erdogan’s tendency to be compared to Ottoman
sultans, who were rulers not only for Muslim, but also Christian and
other subjects of the empire.”
“The tweet in Armenian language was innovative, but the appeal in
itself was not unprecedented or unique,” Geghamyan added. “The
Ottoman-now-Turkish state tradition requires the ruler to extend his
condolences or wishes to the heads of religious communities. This
happened many times starting from 1461 when Sultan Mehmed II
established the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople. Erdogan is
basically keeping up the old tradition, but uses the new
technologies.”
Even the tweet itself, which was written in the Western Armenian
dialect, provides some clues about Erdogan’s intentions, experts said.
“The word Armenian, the ‘a’ should be in upper case, it’s a very
important aspect, when you’re referring to a nation you don’t write it
in lower case in Armenian. So there are certain shortcomings,” said
Der Matossian, adding that the word “family” also had a letter missing
in the tweet.
Turkey and Armenia do not currently have diplomatic relations and the
border between the two countries remains closed. Russian soldiers man
much of the dividing line separating them.
Armenia wants Ankara to recognize formally that Ottoman Turkey
attempted to exterminate the Armenians when 1.5 million of them were
killed during World War I. The issue of genocide recognition has
embittered Turkey’s relationship with Armenia, and with some of the
roughly 28 countries, and the majority of U.S. states, which recognize
the Armenian genocide. Turkey, for its part, maintains that the
murders took place during skirmishes and uprisings, and claims that
the goal was not to exterminate all Armenians. The country also argues
that its smaller neighbor has designs on some of Turkey’s territory.
This article appeared in Newsweek on March 11, 2019.
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3 - Armenian, Georgian, Russian Writing Found on Guns of NZ Mosque
CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND—A white supremacist who identifies himself
as the Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, has killed at least 49 people
and injured another 48 after carrying out a right-wing terrorist
attack on mosques in New Zealand. During the massacre, which he
streamed live online, Tarrant could be seen with weapons scribbled
with white text. He also posted images of the weapons on Twitter
before the feed was deleted.
An examination of the text reveals an obsession with historical
figures who fought against the Ottoman Empire—the Islamic superpower
of its time—other extreme right-wing attackers and the Rotherham
scandal for sexual abuse. Inscribed on one of the guns is a writing in
Armenian that refers to the Battle of Sarigamish, an engagement
between the Russian and Ottoman empires during World War I. The
outcome of the battle resulted in a Russian victory. Ottoman leader
Enver Pasha publicly blamed his defeat on Armenians. One of the gun’s
covered in white lettering featured the names of King Davit
Agmashenebeli and Prince David Soslan, the second husband of Queen
Tamar, in Georgian, the Battle of Kagul 1770 (Russian-Turkish war) and
the Battle of Bulair 1913 were written in Russian.
The writing also cites military leaders and refers to other ancient
battles such as the 1189 Siege of Acre and Ottoman Empire battles
including the 1863 battle of Vienna and the 1877 battle of Shipka
Pass. The attacker left behind a 37 page manifesto, he described
himself as an “ordinary white man” who was inspired by Norway mass
killer Anders Behring Breivik and wanted to avenge “thousands of
deaths caused by foreign invaders.”
Armenia’s foreign ministry has confirmed that it is in contact with
the authorities of New Zealand regarding the note in Armenian and
other languages found on one of the weapons used for the attacks. “We
are in contact with New Zealand’s relevant authorities on all issues
linked with the incident,” Anna Naghdalyan said. The Georgian state
security service reacted to these reports, stating that it cooperated
with its partners to find out details about the persons arrested
following the attack and the weapon used.
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4- Pyunic Holds Successful Fundraiser In Los Angeles
Pyunic, Los Angleles Chapter, held a successful fundraiser luncheon on
Sunday, March 10, at the Chevy Chase Country Club to celebrate
Pyunic’s 30th Anniversary.
Hakob Abrahamyan, President of Pyunic, gave a presentation about the
current and future programs and services that Pyunic provides to
children and young adults with disabilities in Armenia. The over 60
people in attendance raised $16,000 to help meet the needed $60,000
per year administrative expenses for Pyunic to provide the variety of
programs and services to nearly 500 disabled individuals on a monthly
basis via its centers in Yerevan and Gumyri.
During the program, information was provided on the new project to
help develop an income-generating source for Pyunic—to remodel 12
rooms in the Pyunic Center in Yerevan to become part of a Hostel for
young tourists visiting Armenia. This Hostel project is being
coordinated and funded by Pyunic supporters in Paris and Istanbul.
Pyunic’s new website, www.pyunic.org, was unveiled and has started to
become a source of funding for Pyunic via its on-line donation link.
As part of the effort to expand the funding opportunities for Pyunic
the organization will partner with the Alex & Ani jewelry company’s
charity events to have a fund raising event at the company’s Woodland
Hills store in the Topanga Mall on Friday, May 3 from 5 p.m. to 8
p.m., where all items sold will result in a 15% contribution to
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5- Through Her Podcast, Lara Vanian Explores
What it Means to be 'Armenian Enough'
By Aris Mardirossian
I discovered the wonderful world of podcasts a few years ago, and
since then, they have filled and expanded the role that traditional
radio has played in the past. Whether commuting, cooking, or
exercising, podcasts seemed to be the missing piece I didn’t know I
needed and provided quality content tailored for my interests and
curiosities.
As this blog has suggested, I am very interested in learning more
about my Armenian culture and what that culture means to others.
Throughout the life of my podcast fandom, I have frequently typed
“Armenian” into my podcast app search browser, only to feel
disappointment when nothing has emerged. I remember the day this
changed; I was sitting at a bus-stop in Yerevan, waiting before
embarking on my commute to work. My habitual playlist of American news
was playing through my headphones, but today was a slow news day in
the US and my attention was drifting. As I watched the busses pass by,
trying to read the Armenian advertisements posted on their exteriors,
I decided to try my luck once more and see if I could find a podcast
that matched the world around me and recaptured my interest.
After searching the word “Armenian,” I was surprised at the sight of a
podcast that I hadn’t seen before, one named Armenian Enough. I
quickly downloaded the pilot episode as my bus pulled up to the
corner. Stepping on and finding space among Yerevan’s commuters, the
pilot began to play through my headphones and over the roar of the bus
engine. I was soon introduced to the host Lara Vanian-Green for the
first time. I listened as Lara explained how she identifies as a
first-generation American born Armenian, and how her life living as an
Armenian in America has felt like a constant balancing-act between the
two very different cultures. As Lara talked and I listened, I remember
feeling amazed at how well this show was connecting with my identity
as an Armenian-American, and I knew there were so many others just
like me who would find parity in Lara’s feelings as well.
I listened as she explained her goals and motivations of this podcast
throughout the pilot episode. Like many other Armenian diaspora, Lara
has been fascinated by the comparison of our Armenian ethnicities to
our non-Armenian nationalities. How do the two cultures blend
together? How do they collide? And what does our Armenian identity
mean to us? Lara planned to cover topics from the ordinary to the
sublime like dating (Armenians and non-Armenians), overcoming gender
and career expectations, and being LGBTQ in the Armenian community.
These topics, along with the variety of others, are topics that I have
always been curious about, and hearing Lara describe her plans to
discuss them filled me with curiosity and excitement.
Since my discovery of Armenian Enough on the Yerevan bus last fall,
the show has released 16 episodes with my personal favorites being
Episode 5: Trans Armenian with Guest Rudy Akbarian, Episode 9: Early
Childhood Education with Dr. Natalie Berberian, and Episode 14: Series
on Dating, Part 2 with matchmaker Christie Tcharkhoutian. Through my
listening of these episodes along with the others, I’ve been amazed at
Lara’s ability to get into the depths and details of certain subjects
through the unique lenses of the people she interviews. Often, my
ideas and perceptions have been broadened from the topics discussed on
the show and I am sure that many of the show’s listeners can say the
same. I find that in the diaspora, we often limit our perception of
being Armenian to what immediately surrounds us. Armenian Enough has
become a bridge to the vastness of what this Armenian identity means
others, and most importantly, how this diverse identity connects us.
Recently, I had the privilege of talking with Lara on the phone. She
explained that while today, Armenian Enough continues its exploration
of the Armenian identity, now Lara is using the skills and lessons
that she has obtained through her own show to help others (Armenians
and non-Armenians) launch podcasts and initiatives of their own.
Though we were talking through the phone, I could hear Lara’s genuine
excitement for this new project, and I was left amazed from it for
some time afterwards. As Lara explained in the pilot episode, being
Armenian in the diaspora means that we are constantly performing a
balancing-act between our Armenian ethnicities and our non-Armenian
nationalities. But as I think about Lara’s latest initiative and my
expanded perceptions that followed each Armenian Enough episode, I’m
reminded that our unique balancing-acts can be used to bridge cultures
and add an immense value to both.
Thank you Lara for teaching and reminding us that we are always Armenian Enough.
For more information, visit www.armenianenough.com.
Aris Mardirossian is the founder of Lavash Life blog
(www.lavashlife.com). This article appeared in Lavash Life on March
11, 2019.
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