The Armenian Armed Forces responded to the Azerbaijani provocations in the direction of Nakhijevan by firing shot, Artsrun Hovhannisyan – spokesperson of Armenia’s defense ministry, said on Facebook.
“As a result, we do not rule out any losses in the Azerbaijani armed forces”, he said.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with President of the European Council Donald Tusk in Brussels.
BRUSSELS—Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with Presidents of the European Union’s European Council and European Commission at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium to discuss EU-Armenia relations and the new government’s mission.
During his meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk, the new Armenian government’s goal is to strengthen democracy, ensure rule of law and support an independent judiciary. Armenia welcomes the EU’s support and is ready for close cooperation to achieve these goals.
Tusk spoke about expanding the Armenia-EU partnership and welcomed the recent national unity in Armenia.
“I have always been the friend of Armenia. What happened in Armenia was unique, I would say, was very European. Your example was very promising and you can expect the EU’s support on the path of implementing the reforms,” Tusk said.
During the meeting, the officials also exchanged views on different issues aimed at developing the Armenia-EU ties. Regarding the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Pashinyan said Armenia is committed to the negotiation process being carried out under the auspices of the Minsk Group Co-Chairs and stated that any attempt to solve the conflict through military means will be an encroachment against the regional security, democracy and human rights.
“Like any democratic country, Armenia strives for peace and does everything for ensuring regional security and stability,” Pashinyan said.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels.
Pashinyan also discussed the perspectives of Armenia-EU relations in the context of the democratic changes in Armenia with President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker.
Juncker said the EU is inspired by the peaceful and democratic nature of changes in Armenia and expressed willingness to continue to support the country’s reforms.
Pashinyan was grateful for the EU’s previous support and assured Juncker that, moving forward, both institutional and financial support and consulting will be used in a more responsible manner.
“The ongoing fight against corruption is one of the main priorities of our government,” Pashinyan said.
The mayor of the Armenian capital Yerevan resigned Monday, two months after his party was ousted from national power following weeks of mass protests against corruption and cronyism.
Opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan was elected prime minister by parliament on May 8. He then appointed allies and supporters to his cabinet and submitted a new government program, which was approved by parliament in June.
Taron Margaryan, an influential member of the former ruling Republican Party, resigned as Yerevan mayor, a post he had held since November 2011. Margaryan did not explain in a statement why he had stepped down.
Several street protests had been held since Pashinyan took office to demand Margaryan’s resignation.
Playwright Leslie Ayvazian while performing on stage. BY LORI SINANIAN Special to Asbarez I met with Leslie Ayvazian at The Line hotel in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood in late June. Before we sat in a crescent-shaped booth at the Commissary, Ayvazian was able to sense patterns about me. It was only our second encounter. A true, fervent, playwright had the aptitude to pick up on things others aren’t equipped to notice. During our conversations, the crescent booth became a full moon, it was as though eye-to-eye interactions between human beings existed again. Leslie’s creative expressionism portrayed the industrial architecture of the hotel’s building. Her latest play, “100 Aprils” is the epitome of the back-and-forth of isms: surrealism and realism. The play makes you think and re-think. Just as a spiral moves outwards, your perception of the play creates your very own thoughts based on true, historical foundation: The Armenian Genocide. “100 Aprils” is the triumph of the truth universally explained to those who have never heard of the Armenian Genocide, and those who are by-products of the everlasting factual, story-telling of the Armenian Genocide. Throughout the play, as a viewer, the totality of the human mind experiences the raw condition of post-genocidal trauma. LORI SINANIAN: Under what circumstances did you write the play “100 Aprils?” I’m aware that it is a personal story and wish to know more about the motif. After seeing the play, the setting seems to tell the story of genocide by universalizing it. It feels emotionally-driven, enabling the entire audience to resonate with what’s right in front of them. LESLIE AYVAZIAN: Well, I wrote it for the centennial. I mean, I knew that it was coming up and I needed to write another play. The time had come to write another play. Everything I do is in one way or another based on my childhood, which is the childhood of suffering from watching my parents suffer. Every time I have a platform, I come back to that story. It is not unusual for me to tell the story in one way or another. For the centennial, I decided I will do what I would to come back to L.A. and be part of what was being experienced here…so that was my goal. I started two years before the centennial. I started doing readings in my house, in my apartment. I would invite people over just to listen to it. Also, both my parents had passed away, so I felt that I was able to write more into the truth of our life which was the anguish and suffering of our lives. In “Nine Armenians,” the happy side of our life was more emphasized because my parents were alive and their brothers and sisters were alive and all of them came to this. I had dancing in it, I had back-and-forth “Yavrum, Anoushig.” This one, “100 Aprils,” is closer to the truth of my life, the enormous sorrow of my father who was broken by the genocide and so were his brothers…broken. He always lived a version of life, not the fullness of his remarkable intelligence, not the fullness of his remarkable artistry. He could draw, he drew in the margins of his notebooks, and he could write. He wrote novels, he wrote articles, he wrote for the encyclopedias, but mostly, he ran the periphery of sorrow all the time, as did my grandmothers, as did my grandfathers. That was the atmosphere. For me, a woman turning 70, that was my generation. I always felt the responsibility to try to write it somehow, to make it better for him, to make it better for my grandparents, to somehow ease their pain- that’s a huge responsibility as a grandchild and a child, everybody in my generation felt that, “How can I help you? How can I make it better for you?” And then essentially you are defeated. I was defeated for my father, he literally yelled “No!” in his last breath. That is the truth. No. Because he wasn’t ready to die because he was still waiting to live — which is a line from the play. I have conjured different ways of talking about the genocide all my life, as have my sisters. L.S.: Can you tell me more about the title of the play, “100 Aprils?” L.A.: It was written for the centennial, so it was 100 years on 2015, and the 2015 part is part of it too because it’s September 15, 1915 that the order from the Turkish government came out to exterminate the Armenians. And then it’s April 24th, 1915, that the first action happened of arresting the 250 leaders in the Armenian community. So the 15, I didn’t want to lose that number. It was originally called 1515 but it didn’t look good on the poster, it looked like some math conference. “100 Aprils” is the 100 years that this honors, and now we are starting our newest 100 years, and let’s get this information to be more normal and recognized and honored in this next set of years. L.S.: When I entered the venue, I assumed that the first floor is where the play was going to take place, later to learn that I was wrong. One of the men in the room approached me and asked “Oh, are you here to see ‘One-thousand Aprils?’” I questioned the title, as it sounded unfamiliar. I then made the connection and thought to myself, “Man, with the significance the name of the play holds, let us hope it is not a thousand years that we’re still demanding universal justice for the Armenian Genocide. L.A.: (Laughter) Maybe I should change it; because to Armenians, it does feel like a 1,000 years. The number, to Armenians, it’s just an abstraction because the day it started it was an unspeakable horror, and that can’t be quantified. But my first Armenian play was named “Nine Armenians” with the attempt to quantify. I’ve put numbers in both titles and what I wanted for “Nine Armenians” when it ran at the taper was I wanted the marquee to have the word Armenian in it, and I wanted them to be identified in a number, This is nine of them, you are now going to meet nine of them. Back then you could have casts of nine, since then, for economic reasons, smaller casts. L.S.: How have your shows at the Rogue Theater been thus far post-opening night? I presume that just like watching a movie multiple times or re-reading a book for the second or third time, we become more heedful to all that we are surrounded by, whether it be something specific: How many people showed up? Or whether it be the entire experience as a whole that changes each time you perform. L.A.: Things continue to surprise me about the experience of being in Los Angeles while doing this play. It is emotional for me to do a premier of a play, just to hear it, because plays are meant to be heard, they are not meant to be read, so when you hear it for the very first time, it is a very important and significant experience of…does it sound like how you imagined it would sound? Are you learning things from that? Is it different, and, therefore, better? What is it? But also just having Armenians in the audience…That just matters to me. It matters to me because I know they’re there. Without looking at the reservations list, I know when the Armenians are there because they respond differently than other people in the audience. They respond to things people who aren’t Armenian don’t respond to. I know right away, in my first entrance, when I pulled the lavash out of my purse, I know what those laughs are. And the effect on me, to know they’re there, literally lifts me up. I wrote this in the name of my parents and my grandparents, and it makes me feel like they’re there. They have all now passed away but I feel very much in communication with them, still, I speak to them and pray to them, and I wonder how they would feel about this play and I hope they would feel open-hearted and proud…I think they would. But to have the Armenians there feels like having family there, and it has had more of an impact on me that I even imagined. Playwright Leslie Ayvazian. Once I establish that there are Armenians in the audience, I have a kind of a raft I float on through the whole play because I know that what I’m saying is familiar to them, that I’m not teaching them, I’m just sharing with them, and that’s a different feeling. I don’t write plays to teach people. When I’m in an audience, I don’t want to be taught, I want to figure out what I’m experiencing and I don’t go to the theatre to be taught, I go to the theatre to have my heart opened so that I can have my own lessons there. This play goes out on a limb and really does put in information, a lot of exposition about what we experienced, and I had to find a way to make that theatrical and that is why it took me five years because I had so much information to pull from, and you have to sort through what you are actually going to say. Things that were full pages are now just a couple of lines, so experiencing this play with an Armenian audience is giving me, I think, the best premier I can have because I feel that I have my family with me, I have my tribe, and it helps me do something that’s very hard. I didn’t expect to be in this play, I expected someone else to do the role, but John Flynn (one of the cast members) needed me to do it. He saw me do the reading and he knew that I carry the world of it in me and so he asked me to please do it. Performing it is one thing, writing it is another thing. When you write it you are objective, when you’re in it, you’re subjective, and that’s a big bridge to cross when you’re doing it for the first time. L.S.: I believe that those are two different kinds of perceptions as well: performing it and writing it. L.A.: Yes, exactly, they really are, and they require a different part of your brain. I had to spend a lot of time evaluating the script, making notes in the back of my head, and then trying to also inhabit the script. So the rehearsal process was vigorous to say the least, but now that we are actually running, I feel very much a part of it. I’ve come to trust the script, it just, you know, it’s 87 pages, it’s 75 minutes, and it’s five years in the making, so, it’s been polished like an opal. I really had thought of every single word and how they all start here and end there and I think it’s a complete journey. I’m proud of the play. It was a lot of hard work. It is not like other plays. It’s hard-hitting, but it’s a family, they are a family, and I think you sense that and they have a journey and everything in it is true. L.S.: It takes a lot for someone to say that they’re so proud about their own play. I think feeling that about your own play is the most satisfying statement because it justifies your abilities and talents — being happy about your own creation, It brings it all to life. L.A.: Amen! Amen! And also that’s true for women. I could go off on a whole thing about that. L.S.: What is it like to be a woman playwright? I was wondering if you can tell me more about that. Being a woman in this sort of creative industry and how it is unbalanced, do you feel that imbalance? L.A.: That is very real for me, what it is to be a woman playwright. The subject matter we choose to deal with and the entrance we have, there are still not that many women playwrights, women directors, women designers, it’s still an unbalanced field. Yeah, Lori, this is the world I live in right now and have always lived in, the world of consciousness around the inequality of the woman experience and the male experience. I have a wonderful husband and a wonderful son and I don’t bash men but I am very, very sensitive and very alert to the different systems that we live under, women and men. Ever since I have been in my 20s, I had headed up writing groups just for women, once a week, ever since my twenties — and I’m turning 70 this summer — just so that women can get together and write, and discover, and investigate, and listen to each other’s voices, so I have been extremely sensitive to the language that is used around women. I just launched a series at Columbia called “Women in language” where I invite women in their 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, to sit on stage and talk about how they have prevailed in this business to the younger people who are my students, to the women in their 20s and 30s who ask questions of these women. I start out with a list of words that apply to women and then how do we cope with them: Aggressive, abrasive, abusive, assertive, ambitious bitch, ball-buster, castrator. I go all the way from A-Z. I have collected over 450 words that are used just for women and they are used in the world all around us, we use that language for ourselves, and that’s the saddest thing, that we define and accommodate the language of diminishment and that’s what I try to look at squarely, respectfully, and name it. If I know someone is speaking to me in a way that they wouldn’t speak to a man, I call it, I say it, I point it out, I just point it out. I say, “If you were speaking to a man, how would you say that sentence? Tell me the truth, tell me the truth.” I go through life with this ultra-sensitivity about the language of diminishment and I try to substitute words for those words. I’ve been called aggressive so many times, so many times. And men can be aggressive but it doesn’t have the same sphere. L.S.: Right, it does not have a negative connotation. L.A.: It definitely does not. It’s a plus for a man. L.S. & L.A.: (at the same time) and a minus for a woman. L.A.: If you’re calling me aggressive, then what I need to do in my mind is that I need to think, maybe the word is actually courageous, maybe the word is destined, maybe the word is good example, maybe the word is heroic, maybe the word is skilled or prepared, maybe the word is hungry. Those words can be used instead of aggressive, assertive, abrasive. Those words are not used for men in the same way. What I’m telling you is, I’m sensitive, I hear the language and as soon as I recognize that it is trying to do something to make me smaller, to make me less intelligent, to make me feel that I’m behaving badly, I reframe it. I am a work in progress of a woman who is looking for true liberation from the language of oppression which is the language we all speak and at this age, and I’m going to say it over and over again, because I cannot believe I’m turning 70 in four weeks, and yet I’ve never felt more empowered, I’ve never felt better looking. Better looking — I’ll say it, straight out. I walk into a room and I have presence and that presence doesn’t have anything to do with any of that. I am keeping the face of an aging woman, I am keeping the neck and skin of an aging woman and I am hoping that what is there in me shines past that and then I can be a true crone with full pride, that I am serving as some example for younger women to identify what is keeping you back, what is keeping us back, under any circumstance, in the arts, as a playwright, under any circumstance, it is the same battle. Just identify what is the language that is being used for you and help you change that so that the dialogue you have with yourself is positive and allows you to access your intelligence. Anyone who is pushing aside our intelligence needs to be addressed so that we can cling to our intuition as intelligence. Women are intuitive, men are intuitive too but they don’t allow it and they haven’t been raised to allow it. Women have innate intuitions and innate instincts, we have children inside us. We know these secrets. We know this breath of life. We need to defend it in ourselves. When we are together — we can be tribal when we are together. I love that word, tribal. I love that ancient women in ancient societies truly raised children as a village. What it was when we lived in the time of the matriarchies, were peaceful environments, they were about life and instincts and death and earth. We have lived away from that and the planet has suffered so that’s what a big deal I think it is, that when women write what it is inside themselves, the play writes itself. Sadly, this terrible place of living with misogyny and racism, things have hurt us, hurt the planet, hurt the universe, hurt God, and it’s up to us to claim ourselves and we could do that by becoming alert to what we’ve gotten used to. “Hey Bitch!” — you would never hear me say that. You would never hear me call another woman a bitch. Never! I will not co-opt the language of the patriarchy, I won’t make it mine because all that does is give me swagger, and swagger isn’t power. Power is authenticity [points at her stomach to put focus to her organs]. It’s not here [as she points to her physical features], it is not attitude! It is authenticity — you hold that and you wield some power. So, that’s how I deal with it, every day. Every day, I confront what it is that is slightly different because I’m a woman, whether I’m a playwright or an actor, or a mother, whatever else it is I do. I’m a teacher. This is how I talk in class. That’s why when I came to L.A., and decided to do a women’s rights group that happened two nights ago, I called up eight women who went to my classes in Columbia, they were all there one night later. Ten years later, I’m at this table with these women who are now working in Los Angeles and all of them are just reaming with positivity…being back at the table with them was a great bond. That’s how it feels. Don’t you feel that? L.S.: Even through your portrayal of words, I feel it, without needing to experience it. I feel as though modern-day matriarchy is evident in a sense that women know it exists. Life for women, it’s challenging, but we’ve becoming prone to defeating those challenges, we seem ready for the challenges in life merely because the determining components of everyday-life for women has raised us to be ready for whatever comes forth. L.A.: Yes, Yes, I mean, good for us. Life, I believe, is an athletic event and we need to be athletes, we need to train and be athletes – that’s the other thing I’m an advocate of. When I realized that I was hitting 70, that I was postmenopausal, there’s a lot of language around, what happens to a woman after menopause, the kind of giving in and settling down kind of thing. What I did is I just accelerated, I just decided I’m going to be as disciplined as I can be so I can have as much energy as I can so I can just push back the clock because now is the time I’m meant to be alive. I want my 70s to be my most alive decade, and I think it will be. L.S.: Feeling so certain about 70 being your most alive decade yet, what can you tell your 20-year-old self? L.A.: My 20-year-old self was in the 60s and the 70s. I was pretty and didn’t know what that meant. I was pretty so I didn’t think I was smart because my sister was smart. I didn’t think I was athletic because my other sister was athletic. We each had a tag and we each had a title and being pretty was mine and I didn’t know how that served me and I got in a lot of trouble. I rode motorcycles, I had a lot of boyfriends, I did not believe I was smart and I suffered. I didn’t join the women’s movement, I saw women as competitors, but you know something, I wouldn’t say anything to that girl because I needed to have that to have this. I was a product of my time, I was a hippie, I was outside the box, uninformed, risky, good-hearted, but confused and yet we learn our lessons don’t we? Hopefully, life is about gaining wisdom, and I don’t think I would lecture that young girl. I have this show called “Mention My Beauty” which is me, one person on stage standing at a music stand, talking to the audience about my life. I actually read the story of my life to the audience. There are no production values and you call it a play. I don’t call it a reading, I don’t call it a cabaret act, it’s a play and the audience just sits there and looks at me for an hour and 20 minutes and imagines the whole thing in their mind. I tell them what it was like, riding motorcycles in my twenties and having basically no purpose in living with a great amount of danger. I tell them what it was like to join VISTA and go to the south end of Columbus, Ohio, and teach African American kids — I had no idea about their culture and I was trying to teach them to be white, I was useless. What it was to be confused, lost, uninformed and competitive with other women and how each decade has changed for me, and what it is to prevail, that’s my show. The reason I’m leaving here is I’m going back to do a one week workshop at Dartmouth through New York Theatre Workshop the first week of August. I’ve been invited to work this play for them and I’m thrilled about it. It’s starting to gain traction and ultimately it will be a book that I will sell … Do you ever come to New York? L.S.: I’ve been before, only twice. I went in the eighth grade because it was a mandatory trip through school, which I don’t mind, I didn’t mind at the time nor do I now because it was a great excursion. But the second time I went, I actually flew out by myself for the first time. I had a cousin who attended Columbia, undergrad, but flying there by myself was an amazing experience, and New York out of all places, an amazing place to be. I would love to go back one day. L.A.: You really should come back. Come back. I will take you places, I will show you things. It’s an extremely exciting city. L.S.: I have so much I need to see, so much life I still need to experience. L.A.: New York is a great place to do it. I mean, it’s also harsh, it’s relentless, it’s brutal. L.S.: I think I need that. L.A.: I do too. I think we all do. L.S.: We all do, all the time. L.A.: If you want to challenge your life, not everybody does, but if you’re an artist, you’ve got to rub up against the sandpaper, you have to figure out who you are because that’s what you’re giving people, you’re giving your information, your intelligence, your spirit to the world, so you have to be very ready to do that, you’ve got to become fit and I think it happens through challenge. That’s one of the reasons why I said yes to John Flynn, and he said yes when I asked him to do the role. That was a challenge for him, I mean, he’s the artistic director of the Rogue Machine, he has a wonderful reputation, he’s a hard-working guy, and he took on this hard role after not being on stage for 30 years, that’s a challenge, and he decided to do that in his 30s. Because we both made that leap, we feel like a married couple on stage, sometimes off stage we feel like a married couple. Playwright Leslie Ayvazian’s hands. L.S.: What is a maxim you live by? L.A.: “To be wide inside” — it’s a provocative thing to say, you’re not sure what it means, but that’s good, too. Think about it. Contraction limits, wideness expands your own intelligence and allows you to access your intelligence. It’s a job to be available to yourself, it’s worth putting your time and thought into it. L.S.: The word “wide” to me is very abstract as well, and it’s not limited either, so yes, wideness allows you to access intelligence, but the overall self, the inner-self. L.A.: The inner self, to fill out to the margins of who you are. L.S.: Or expand from the margins! L.A.: Or beyond, I mean, once you get here, there’s no place to go but out here [pointing outwards] and then you can access everything around you, and give to it. I think the key to life is giving and that’s what I think artists really want to do. A lot of artists aren’t very good business people, some of them are, but not necessarily. Artists want to give what they have, here’s my drawing! Here’s my music! Here’s my painting! Here’s my language! I hope it has some impact on you. Thank you for listening, thank you for looking, thank you. L.S.: It’s a reciprocal experience, the want to share. L.A.: It is, and it’s a wonderful way to go instead of take. What can I take? What can I have? But what can I give? And I really do think that’s why actors work for free, hard jobs. They work for free because they’re out there giving what they’ve got, and ultimately, that’s what makes them feel alive. It’s the rock concert of life. L.S.: I concur. I believe that art is a conversation starter. With art, it is always about giving, never about taking. You’re only ever taking something from art that is an intangible thing, but an experience that is priceless and irreplaceable. Life is an unfolding experience and how I like to define it is an educational lab. L.A.: Yes, it is, and that’s what we have to aim for. It’s a choice, we get to make choices in this life, sometimes, some of us are luckier than others. L.S.: But the choices we don’t get to make, that makes it a challenge and I don’t think that’s unfortunate at all. L.A.: No, I don’t either but I don’t think the game is always fair. People are born into situations that can be too challenging, actually too challenging. But it’s how we rise up. It’s always how we rise up. It’s not about getting knocked down because we all do, we just do. We’re not living in the Garden of Eden, but that coming back with some sense of yourself, I don’t even use the word esteem — I’m not sure I understand what that word is — but that some sense of un-presenting myself, it’s the best you can ask. Then you have a shot at living the challenge of life and giving to it and making a difference even on a small level — day-to-day small level — that is what I think I do, sometimes the things I do are not grand, they’re not important L.S.: It just is. To go back to challenges. Challenges, I don’t believe always have to be difficult, I think waking up is a mere challenge. L.A.: I completely agree. L.S.: Getting out of bed is a mere challenge; as simple and as minimal as that. L.A.: I wrote a short film about that: the process of getting out of bed. It’s called “Every Three Minutes,” and it’s only three minutes long. It ran on Showtime, and it won an award. The fascinating smallest moments of life, the very smallest moments of life can hold all of life. If you can take a picture of something authentically, it has the whole world in it. It doesn’t always have to be the major things. “100 Aprils” tickets and dates can be found here. An annual open-air festival dedicated to Javakhk and Javakhk Armenians [Samtskhe-Javakheti, mostly Armenian-populated region in southern Georgia] was organized at the initiative of “Hayuhyats” charity organization in Nor Jugha (New Julfa). During the festival, national dances and songs were performed along with games and recreational activities. As the charity reports, the participants also made donations to implement different projects in the region. The proceeds from the event were allocated to Javakhk Foundation established by the Armenian National Committee.
1- Commentary By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com 2- Danny Tarkanian wins Nevada Republican congressional primary 3 – Glendale to Rename Street in Honor of Artsakh By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde 4 – In Long Beach, Memorial Service Honors Former Gov. George Deukmejian 5 – GALAS Marks Two Decades of Service to LGBTQ Armenian Community 6 – USC Thornton Friends Of Armenian Music Celebrates 39th Anniversary 7- Special Works By Rostom Sarkissian ****************************************** 1 – Another Anti-Armenian Writer Exposed For Making Baseless Allegations By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com It seems that not a week passes without coming across another The latest such writer is Peter Tase who posted an article titled, This extremely biased article resorts to exaggerations and untrue To begin with, Tase disparages Iranian-Armenian Gevork Vartanian’s Tase then picks on two Russian Armenian journalists—Margarita Simonyan Next is the turn of Artur Chilingarov, Vice Speaker of the Russian Perhaps the most sinister part of Tase’s article is falsely claiming There are also several minor errors in Tase’s article which show his Tase’s next attack on Armenians is their alleged connection to Pres. Tase also misrepresents the statement posted by Aram Hamparian, Tase then mentions the name of Keith Nahigian, as “perhaps the most Tase prematurely refers to congressional candidate Danny Tarkanian Incredibly, Tase mentions Kim Kardashian as an Armenian Tase falsely concludes his baseless and shameful article by stating: I don’t think Pres. Trump needs Armenian-Americans to establish ************************************************************************************************** 2- Danny Tarkanian wins Nevada Republican congressional primary By Lisa Hagen (Combined Sources)—Danny Tarkanian won his Republican congressional Tarkanian, who is fresh off a narrow defeat in the district south of The Nevada businessman was originally running as a GOP primary Tarkanian, the son of legendary University of Nevada, Las Vegas This is Tarkanian’s third congressional bid since 2012. He’s also run Trump congratulated Tarkanian on his big GOP primary win in Nevada. ************************************************************************************************** 3 – Glendale to Rename Street in Honor of Artsakh By Alejandra Reyes-Velarde In Glendale, there’s a Dublin Drive, a Calafia Street, a Baghdad Place That will change soon, after the City Council made the historic 4-0 “It’s overdue to have some sort of street naming, not a part, not an The decision follows weeks of contentious debate among business More than 60 speakers were present at Tuesday’s meeting, which Some speakers at the meeting said business owners didn’t attend Those who did attend Tuesday’s meeting said they supported a street The UYA initially sought consideration of changing the name of Sanchez The City Council studied the options presented by the UYA, and “I understand the reason for wanting a commemoration of Artsakh,” said The resolution passed Tuesday included an appropriation of $131,000 Business owners, however, said that amount isn’t enough. They said Some council members and public speakers said those numbers seemed to One speaker said that by changing the name to Artsakh Street, Glendale Members of UYA said the proposal to change the name was meant to “The area, which is situated in the Glendale Arts and Entertainment “As a lifelong Glendale resident, I’m absolutely honored to have the But at times the debate became divisive. Following public comments, Mayor Zareh Sinanyan expressed his “This individual writes the following: ‘We have a wonderful history Sinanyan appeared to be baffled and angry as he read the comments. “Apparently, the wonderful history here already doesn’t include the 40 Councilwoman Paula Devine was the only member who opposed the name She said supporting the name change is counter to her support of small Ultimately, the council decided it should not be a big deal to While the majority of the council supported the name change, members “I think this city is offering to change the name of a street, so we There was no further discussion about how exactly the city would cover ********************************************************************************************* 4 – In Long Beach, Memorial Service Honors Former Gov. George Deukmejian It was not an elegy, but an ode—to a life well lived. Gov. George Deukmejian, who died last month, was remembered on June 9 Hundreds sat in the wood-paneled Terrace Theater for the “celebration But those tasked with summing up Deukmejian’s 89-year life also spoke “He was a good, decent, humble man,” said former Long Beach Mayor Bob Deukmejian, born in upstate New York, built a 29-year career in During the memorial, Foster and four other speakers led the audience The soft on crime moment came, jokingly, from George Deukmejian, Jr., “His face was familiar, but he was often misidentified,” his son said, There was also the time Deukmejian video recorded his son, one year Or the time that same troublesome son performed a splash-happy cannon “People say my dad never cursed,” Deukmejian, Jr. said, reminiscing The audience erupted, laughing and applauding. The other speakers were: Marv Baxter, a retired California Supreme Court justice who recalled The trio, as well as Foster, rattled off Deukmejian’s political “He was a wonderful man,” Baxter said. “And a great governor.” Merksamer, who once worked in the state Attorney General’s Office, “He didn’t ask for contributions, didn’t talk about himself at all,” *************************************************************************************************** 5 – GALAS Marks Two Decades of Service to LGBTQ Armenian Community WEST HOLLYWOOD—The Gay and Lesbian Armenian Society (GALAS) celebrated Over twenty years ago, a small group of LGBTQ Armenians felt the need Early on, GALAS realized the need to foster a safe and supportive This year marked a renewed pledge to building bridges between GALAS GALAS honored several LGBTQ Armenian activists at this year’s gala, GALAS presented the “Superstar Award” to Openly gay comedian, actor The “Changemaker Award” was presented to Mamikon Hovsepyan, executive Transgender Army reservist Rudy Akbarian was honored with the Azad Mazmanian, a brave member of the Armenian LGBTQ community, was Performances included Element Band, known for their distinctive GALAS raised a substantial amount in response to its $1,000 Angel For more information about GALAS, visit www.galasla.org. ***************************************************************************************************** 6 – USC Thornton Friends Of Armenian Music Celebrates 39th Anniversary LOS ANGELES—On May 6, 2018, the Board of Directors of the USC Thornton Under the leadership of Irene Sassounian, the organization is The highlight of the afternoon was a musical program, selected by vice For more information, contact Irene Sassounian, (818) 203-7221. ************************************************************************************************* 7- Special Works By Rostom Sarkissian In a surreptitiously taped video by one of his own AKP party members, Erdogan then tells his party officials to put a “tight marking” on the A few days later, political violence erupted in Kurdish populated town In 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was chastised by The United States and the European Union need to condemn Erdogan’s Rostom Sarkissian is a Los Angeles-based public policy professional ********************************************************************************************************************************************** California Courier Online provides viewers of the Armenian News News Service Member of the National Assembly Gevorg Kostanyan resigned from the position of RA representative at the European Court of Human Rights. At today’s session of the government, a decision was made, according to which Deputy Minister of Justice Artak Asatryan will perform the duties of the representative of ECHR Armenia. Kostanyan issued a statement saying: “After the European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms was ratified by the Republic of Armenia on April 26, 2002, the representation of the Republic of Armenia at the European Court of Human Rights was established in 2004. From the first day of establishment until now, I have been the representative of the RA government at the European Court. In these years, with the efforts of all of us in the Republic of Armenia, undoubtedly, a huge amount of work has been done in the field of human rights protection in general and especially in the direction of wide application of the European Convention on Human Rights in the Republic of Armenia. During the years 2002-2017, the number of complaints submitted to the ECtHR for the examination of the Republic of Armenia amounted to 3,416. 1,518 of these complaints were considered inadmissible by the ECtHR or removed from its list of cases. As of June 14, 2018, the ECHR has issued 93 judgments in 88 proceedings regarding the Republic of Armenia. In 4 proceedings, the ECHR Chamber made 2 separate judgments on the merits and on just compensation. The judgment of the Chamber in 1 proceedings was revised by the judgment of the Grand Chamber. Out of 88 judgments on the merits, the ECtHR recorded a violation in 84, and in 4 it did not record any violation. As of June 14, 2018, according to the judgments of the ECHR regarding the Republic of Armenia, which have become final, the applicants submitted a claim for compensation equivalent to more than 23 million euros, of which 1,158,290 euros were satisfied, that is, about 5% of the total claim. After the events that took place in April-May 2018, the government changed in Armenia, as a result of which the government’s position has naturally changed or may change in the majority of cases currently being examined or to be examined in the European Court. Under these circumstances, I consider it inappropriate to continue my tenure as the representative of the Republic of Armenia at the European Court. I find that the new government should have the opportunity to freely present its positions in the cases examined in the European Court and not be constrained by the previously presented positions. There will be many occasions to discuss my activities as the representative of the Republic of Armenia in the European Court in more detail, but at this moment I want to record that during these years I and the team working with me have done everything possible to properly represent the interests of the Republic of Armenia in the European Court. I am sure that the new team will also work with no less dedication and the state of human rights protection in Armenia will improve every year.” Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has appointed Arthur Hovhannisyan, Vigen Kocharyan, Suren Krmoyan and Artak Asatryan as deputy ministers of justice. Hovhannisyan was appointed first deputy minister, the government’s press service said.
Playwright Leslie Ayvazian Opens Up About ‘100 Lives’ and the 100-Year Struggle for Justice
Open-air festival dedicated to Javakhk organized in Nor Jugha
Panorama, Armenia
July 5 2018
Society 13:04 05/07/2018 Region
The California Courier Online, June 21, 2018
The California Courier Online, June 21, 2018
Another Anti-Armenian Writer Exposed
For Making Baseless Allegations
mysterious writer who undertakes to contribute a puff piece about
Azerbaijan and to undermine the reputation of Armenia and Armenians
around the world.
“Russia’s Foreign Agents in America: Trump Connection of Armenian
Lobbyists,” on June 11, 2018 on the Eurasia Review website.
allegations in order to link Armenia and various Armenian individuals
to Russia, and even more surprisingly, to Pres. Donald Trump.
praiseworthy actions during World War II by calling him “one of the
most prolific Soviet Armenian spies.” In fact, Vartanian provided a
major service to the entire world by thwarting Hitler’s plans to
assassinate Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt while meeting as allies
at the Tehran Conference in 1943. Tase undermines his own credibility
by mentioning that CIA director Stansfield Turner and upper echelons
of the agency trusted Vartanian. Why would they trust Vartanian if he
were such a bad guy? Incredibly, Tase even states that he is
suspicious of Vartanian because he spoke Armenian.
and Gayane Chichakyan—who work for RT (Russia Today) TV. Their only
guilt is that they are “good looking” women, and without any evidence
Tase accuses them of being “ethnically Armenian, as are many other
‘Russian’ agents of influence.”
Duma, whom Tase attacks for being an Armenian. Chilingarov’s fault is
that he was sitting at the next table over from Russian President
Vladimir Putin at a banquet in Moscow. Chilingarov was honored by the
Soviet Union and the Russian Federation for his exploits as a
prominent polar explorer—and not for being an Armenian, as Tase
claims.
that Armenian-American reporter Emil Sanamyan is “a foreign agent.”
This is a completely untrue allegation. Mr. Sanamyan told me that he
is not now, nor has he ever been registered with the U.S. Justice
Department as “a foreign agent.” I hope Mr. Sanamyan will sue Peter
Tase and his website for damaging his reputation. To show the degree
of Tase’s blind hatred for anything Armenian, he accuses Sanamyan of
working for “Americans for Artsakh,” an organization “established to
bring legitimacy to the war crimes and illegal occupation by the
Russian-backed Armenian military that has been ruthlessly perpetrated
(long before Ukraine and Georgia, the Russian government has used
Armenian soldiers to occupy Azerbaijan’s sovereign territory, arrest
development and derail a Pro-Western course of Azerbaijan).” Not a
single word is true in that sentence. The Russian government did not
use Armenian soldiers. Armenians liberated themselves from
Azerbaijan’s oppressive regime which committed mass crimes against
Armenians of Artsakh for decades. In fact, Russian soldiers sided with
Azerbaijan and killed many innocent inhabitants of Artsakh.
Furthermore, “Americans for Artsakh” was a non-profit funded by
Armenian-Americans. Sanamyan told me that he worked there as an unpaid
employee. In addition, when Sanamyan worked at the Office of the
Nagorno Karabakh Republic in Washington, D.C., the organization was
not yet registered with the U.S. Justice Department as “a foreign
agent.” Also, Tase makes up a fake title by claiming that “Sanamyan
was in charge of information warfare and propaganda as Director of the
NKR Public Affairs Office.”
lack of knowledge of Armenian issues. For example, Tase writes about
Armenia’s independence from “Soviet Russia,” instead of the Soviet
Union. The second nonsense is Tase’s comment on a photo of Pres. Serzh
Sargsyan with Pres. and Mrs. Trump at the United Nations in New York.
Tase attributes the photo to the lobbying effort of the
Armenian-American community. However, no lobbying was necessary. If
Tase did a little more research, he would have discovered another
photo of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev with Pres. and Mrs. Trump
at the UN, along with photos of many other heads of state. Another
intentional misrepresentation by Tase is that Sanamyan’s wife, a
graduate of Cass Business School, City University London, was one of
the “Major Donors and Sponsors” of the University in 2012. Tase fails
to mention that Sanamyan’s wife was listed under the smallest amount
category—less than $1,000—which does not make her a major donor.
Trump. This is where Tase makes his most ignorant accusation. The
reality is that there are hardly any Armenians who know Pres. Trump;
so Tase invents imaginary connections. Tase even dares to misrepresent
my 2016 article headlined, “Armenians Should Reach Out to Trump
Through Republican Friends in Congress.” If Tase was an honest
reporter, he would have quoted from my article which stated:
“Armenian-American ties with the President-elect are practically
non-existent.”
Executive Director of ANCA, offering to work with the newly-elected
President. There is no indication in that sentence of any link between
Armenian-Americans and Trump. Scraping the bottom of the barrel, Tase
comes up with a totally unknown name, Andy Surabian, as “another
Armenian political operative deep inside the Trump White House.”
Surabian is described as “Steve Bannon’s political advisor in the
Trump administration and a campaign veteran.” Unfortunately for Tase,
neither Bannon nor Surabian work at the White House anymore.
influential and high-ranking Armenian Diaspora member and registered
lobbyist associated with the Trump campaign…who was tapped to head
Trump’s transition team in 2017.” This is yet another red herring.
Nahigian has no connection with the Armenian community. I sent him an
email two years ago and I am still waiting for his answer. That’s how
close Nahigian is to the Armenian community.
(R-Nevada) as a member of “the Armenian lobby with access to President
Trump.” Should Tarkanian win his House seat in November, we shall be
able to determine how close is his connection to the White House.
“home-porn-turned-Twitter lobbyist” who has met Trump on numerous
occasions—most recently in May 2018,” successfully securing a pardon
from Pres. Trump for a (non-Armenian) grandmother serving a
life-sentence in prison. Tase would have made a more convincing case
if Kardashian had made a request from Pres. Trump on an Armenian
issue. There has been no link between Kardashian as “an Armenian
lobbyist” and Pres. Trump.
“These extensive and deep links to the incumbent inexperienced
president and his campaign create potential national security
implications and deserve scrutiny to ensure that Putin’s ongoing
meddling into the U. S. Homeland would crumble and miserably fail.”
communication with Pres. Putin. Contrary to Tase’s unfounded
allegations, Pres. Trump has had a direct link to the Kremlin for a
long time and does not need anyone else’s assistance.
primary on Tuesday, June 5, in the race to replace outgoing Rep. Jacky
Rosen (D-Nev.) in November.
Las Vegas in 2016, overcame eight Republican challengers to win the
primary Tuesday. Rosen, a freshman lawmaker, is vacating her seat to
run for Senate.
challenger to incumbent Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) but switched to run
for the House seat after being urged by President Donald Trump.
basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, received an endorsement from Trump
after announcing that he would run for the 3rd District’s open seat.
Danny Tarkanian ran against Rosen last cycle, but lost by only 1
point, while the president won the district by a similar margin in
2016.
for the state Senate, Nevada secretary of state, U.S. Senate and
Nevada System of Higher Education Regent.
“Danny worked hard and got a great result. Looking good in November!”
Trump said in a tweet.
and an Eulalia Street—all named after places in the world, some of
which have a connection to the city and others that don’t. But despite
being home to the largest Armenian population outside of Armenia,
Glendale has no streets named in honor of Armenian American
contributions, according to at least one city official.
vote on June 12 to move forward with changing the name of a two-block
portion of Maryland Avenue between Harvard Street and Wilson Avenue to
Artsakh Street after the Republic of Artsakh, a disputed territory
between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
alley, but a modestly sized street with reference to the current
Armenian American community,” said Councilman Ara Najarian after
reciting a long list of street names in Glendale, pointing out how
arbitrary some name changes can be. “Folks, we have changed street
names before. It’s nothing new.”
owners, Glendale residents and Unified Young Armenians, a group of
activists who proposed the name change in February.
overflowed into the lobby, leading city officials to make room in the
Glendale Police Department across the street for people to watch the
meeting via television. The majority of attendees were members of
Unified Young Armenians, donning black shirts with the organization’s
logo. Few business owners and other opponents attended, despite having
a strong presence at a Planning Commission hearing in May.
because they faced intimidation by some members of Unified Young
Armenians. One UYA member reportedly posted boycotting signs on
businesses after their owners voiced opposition during the Planning
Commission meeting.
name change or plaza in honor of their Armenian neighbors, but they
opposed the location, because it would be costly to businesses.
Drive to Artsakh Drive.
ultimately unanimously selected the two blocks of Maryland Avenue
between Wilson and Harvard out of six other options presented to them
by staff.
Pamela Spiszman, chief executive of Pegasus Home Health Care, which
has offices in the stretch of Maryland that would be affected. “I know
what it’s like to have a history of genocide. As a Jewish American, I
understand how important it is to maintain a cultural identity … [But
it] does not need to also harm a whole group of business owners.”
for businesses—$1,000 for each of the 131 businesses on the two-block
portion of the street—to help cover costs of reprinting materials with
new addresses. Also, businesses would have one year to make the
changes.
they would incur thousands of dollars in costs, though the specific
amounts cited varied from $7,000 to $40,000.
be exaggerated and a small price to pay to honor a group of people so
important to the community. Supporters of the name change also argued
that it would bring tourists to the area that would make up for any
costs.
would be taking a political position because the Republic of Artsakh,
more commonly known by its formal name Nagorno-Karabakh, is a disputed
territory.
highlight Glendale’s diversity and unite the community. That feeling
was shared among some community members, and was strongly supported by
the Armenian National Committee of Glendale (ANCA Glendale)—who
expressed strong support for the option to rename Maryland Avenue to
Artsakh Street.
district sees significant foot traffic, attracts thousands of shoppers
every day, and is home to several local Armenian American business who
would welcome the name change,” said ANCA Glendale Community Outreach
Director Margarita Baghdasaryan, after the March 13 council decision
to move forward with the renaming.
opportunity to speak on behalf of my Armenian friends and neighbors,”
said resident Edgar Gonzalez during the meeting. “Changing the name of
two city blocks…I see as simply a small gesture. Glendale needs to
be an example to everyone about inclusion and respect.”
disappointment with messages he said he and other council members have
received. He read some aloud.
here already. The name Artsakh has nothing to do with the history and
well-being of Glendale. We have already given them property for a
museum.’”
years of presence and contribution by the Armenian American
community,” he said. “This community just doesn’t exist for this
individual … To deny an entire people any inkling of their presence in
Glendale, people who are here in large numbers and who have
contributed so much to this city, it’s just not fair.”
change, and she abstained during the vote.
businesses, and suggested creating a plaza named after Artsakh that
would be a “win-win” for businesses and the Armenian American
community.
officially name a street in honor of the Armenian American community.
agreed, however, that there should be concern over how it will affect
businesses.
have to take the responsibility to … pay for the expenses,” said
Councilman Vrej Agajanian. “They can bring their receipts, whatever
cost they are going through, and we have to accept.”
the costs and to what extent.
in a series of affectionate eulogies during a public memorial in Long
Beach, his adopted hometown.
of life,” as Deukmejian’s political colleagues and proteges, as well
as his son, lauded the two-term Republican governor—describing him as
a self-effacing, but dynamic leader who reshaped California’s judicial
system and reined in spending.
about a man who cherished moments of calm while away from the
political fray; who held to his beliefs but was unafraid to change his
mind; and who acted on what was moral, rather than what was
politically expedient, even if it meant standing against his political
allies.
Foster, “who viewed himself as ordinary, but who did extraordinary
things.”
California politics, and was highly regarded by Republicans and
Democrats alike for his bipartisanship and integrity. He served as
governor from 1983 to 1991. But in Long Beach, he was equally known
for his decades-long love affair with the city as for his political
accomplishments.
through the highlights of the governor’s political career and the less
well-known anecdotes of his personal life: The time he held firm
against the gun lobby to sign a bill banning assault weapons, his
actions stoked by the slaughter of children in a Stockton schoolyard.
His penchant for strolling down Belmont Shore’s Second Street in
search of his beloved ice cream. His determination to crack down on
crime and appoint tough-willed, conservative justices. And the
moment when the “Iron Duke” momentarily went “soft on crime”—slapping
his knee, rather than spanking one of his daughters as his wife,
Gloria, had urged after the child misbehaved.
who offered a glimpse into his father’s personal side that the public
rarely saw, someone who easily blended in as the average, lawn-mowing
American family man.
recounting the time a museum tour guide discussed how unpronounceable
she found the name Deukmejian—with the governor standing in front of
her.
old at the time, sitting under a Christmas tree—with an electrical
cord in his mouth (though the filming suddenly halted when Deukmejian
realized the child aimed to bite the live wire).
ball into the pool as the governor snoozed on a raft.
about how his bratty behavior often derailed his dad’s frequent
longing for peace and quiet. “But he called me the offspring of a
female house pet.”
that Deukmejian set his sites on the governor’s job “because the
attorney general doesn’t appoint judges– the governor does”; Ken
Khachigan, Deukmejian’s senior campaign strategist and a family
friend, who portrayed how revered the governor became in the Armenian
community; and Steve Merksamer, the governor’s chief of staff from
1983 to 1987, who detailed the tough choices his boss and mentor made
as the state’s chief executive.
accomplishments: appointing more than 1,000 justices, boosting the
assault-weapons ban, balancing the state budget without raising taxes
and persuading the University of California Board of Regents to divest
from companies in then-racially segregated South Africa. Nelson
Mandela himself acknowledged that California’s policy shifts helped
bring an end to apartheid.
remembered meeting with Deukmejian during his campaign to become
California’s chief prosecutor in 1978. Deukmejian wanted to meet with
Merksamer and another colleague to learn more about the Attorney
General’s Office and how it operated.
Merksamer said. “He just wanted to know how the system could be made
better. And he picked up the check, too.”
its 20th anniversary with a special gala held at Vertigo Event Venue
in Glendale, Calif., on June 2. The evening was hosted by comedians
Lory Tatoulian, Mary Basmadjian and Movses Shakarian. Over 180 members
of the Armenian LGBTQ community, their families, friends and
supporters reflected on past achievements, and looked forward to
continuing to empower new generations of Armenians who seek a platform
where their ethnic and sexual identities can converge.
to create an organization that would foster a sense of community and
belonging. At the time, many LGBTQ Armenians had been ostracized from
their families, friends and the Armenian community at large. What
started as mostly a platform for social interactions, grew quickly
into a formidable organization that has become the leading voice for
the Armenian LGBTQ community in Los Angeles and worldwide.
network for LGBTQ people of Armenian descent. Various programs aimed
at empowering members of the community have been launched throughout
the organization’s existence. These include pro bono psychotherapy
services; college scholarships; outreach to public schools with
significant Armenian student populations; ‘coming out’ support to
individuals and their families; and showcasing talents within the
arts.
and other LGBTQ and Armenian community organizations. GALAS also plans
on doing more in terms of uniting LGBTQ Armenians worldwide by
creating affiliate chapters. Raising awareness on the plight of the
LGBTQ community in Armenia and throughout the Diaspora is also a
priority for the GALAS. In recent years, a close partnership with the
Yerevan-based PINK Armenia NGO has been developed, which aims to
provide support for the full protection of the rights of LGBTQ people
in Armenia.
including James Adomian, Mamikon Hovsepyan, Rudy Akbarian and Azad
Mazmanian.
and impressionist James Adomian—best known for his work on Comedy
Bang! Bang!, Chapo Trap House, Last Comic Standing, and The Late Late
Show with Craig Ferguson. Adomian, the grandson of Armenian-American
mathematician George Adomian, is a proponent of LGBTQ rights who
recently criticized Saturday Night Live for not casting an openly gay
man in 30 years.
director of PINK Armenia and Armenia liaison for GALAS, for his role
in safeguarding LGBTQ and human rights in Armenia. Hovsepyan, a
leading activist in Armenia, traveled from Yerevan to Los Angeles for
this special occasion.
“Emerging Leader Award” after recently speaking out publicly against
President Trump’s plan to ban transgender individuals from military
service. Akbarian has been an active member of the LGBTQ community,
working with the Los Angeles LGBT Center, helping homeless youth find
employment.
honored with the “Trailblazer Award” having been the first organizer
to form a social circle in the 90’s, which eventually evolved into
GALAS.
musical arrangements that preserve and popularize traditional Armenian
songs.
Donor campaign which will be running through the end of the year.
Donations were also made to GALAS and PINK Armenia during the Gala.
Friends of Armenian Music celebrated their 39th Anniversary at the
Louvre Banquet Hall. Under the auspices of Thornton School Dean Dr.
Robert Cutietta and Assistant Dean of Advancement, Dr. Phoenix
Delgado, friends and supporters packed the banquet hall to celebrate
the organization’s 39 years of promoting and supporting Armenian
musical heritage. On this occasion, the Past Presidents of the USC
Thornton Friends of Armenian Music were honored for their leadership
and direction through the years. “We are indebted to our founding
members for their hard work and commitment and would like to express
our thanks and appreciation for their dedicated service and support,”
said president Irene Sassounian. “We wanted to acknowledge and
recognize our Past Presidents who were instrumental in the
establishment, success and perseverance of this worthwhile
organization. It was through their efforts we were able to continue to
provide support to students of Armenian descent at USC’s Thornton
School of Music.” Sassounian also expressed her thanks to Cutietta and
Delgado, for their effective leadership and the celebration of the
past 39 years. The Past Presidents were honored to accept their awards
from Cutietta, and to receive his personal recognition and
congratulations. The Past Presidents recognized on this occasion were:
Eric Avazian, Audrey B. Gregor, Fred Mickaelian Jr., Elise Tashjian,
Artemis Bedros, Diana Artunian, Maro Makasjian, Lily Ring Balian and
Hilda Fidanian.
embarking on a course to reinvigorate participation and membership by
planning major concerts, music lectures, seminars and symposiums in
the near future. Established in 1984, the Scholarship Endowment Funds
continue to present awards from eight to ten recipients each year.
Another achievement was the formation of the USC Armenian Music
Collection in the Doheny Music Library which was enriched with musical
notes, scores and books by the generous donation of the Armenian
community.
president Irene Arathoon. Noted flutist Salpy Kerkonian and her
mother Sossi Kerkonian playing the harp, delighted guests with the
music of Charles Aznavour and others. The Elixir Trio of Lucy
Nargizian, piano; Samual Chilingarian, Violin; and Fang Fang Xu,
Cello, performed the compositions of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Astor
Piazzolla and Aram Khachaturian.
Turkey’s president Recep Erdogan is caught telling his party officials
that “our party organization must conduct very different work on the
HDP” for the upcoming election in Turkey. The types of “very different
work” are left unsaid, but the intent is made clear: a voter
suppression effort to reduce the voter count of the HDP. Erdogan tells
his members, “I can’t speak these words outside. I am speaking with
you here. Why? Because if the HDP falls below the election threshold
it would mean that we would be in a much better place.” The threshold
he is referring to is the 10 percent of the vote that political
parties must receive to enter Parliament.
voters in each district. “You know who is who. If our neighborhood
representatives do not know who is who, then they should resign. You
will take the voter lists for each ballot box and conduct special
work.” In the same meeting, he tells his members to gain AKP
majorities in the monitoring committees in order to “finish the job in
Istanbul before it has even started.”
of Suruc where three Kurds, and the brother of an AKP politician were
killed in a bout of political violence. The details of that incident
are murky, with the AKP blaming the Kurds, and the co-Chair of the HDP
(predominately Kurdish People’s Democratic Party) claiming that this
is a part of the “special works” that Erdogan had called for. This
type of political violence can serve the AKP in two ways: first, by
instilling fear in Kurdish voters, while rallying AKP members around
the “martyred” brother of the AKP candidate. Political violence is the
most extreme “special work” that can be employed, but Given Erdogan’s
emphasis on the voter rolls, election monitors need to be vigilant
about more basic forms of voter suppression that take place on the
individual, ground level.
the Obama Administration and the American press for telling his
supporters in a video that “Arab voters are coming out in droves to
the polls…”, and then using their higher turnout to motivate his
supporters to “[g]et out to vote, bring your friends and family, vote
Likud in order to close the gap between us and Labor.” In comparison,
that was a benign attempt at rallying his own voters versus Erdogan’s
outright call for his comrades to do whatever “special works” are
necessary to win the vote.
call for ballot box stuffing, voter intimidation, political violence
or whatever “special works” he has in mind to suppress the HDP vote,
and ensure his own victory. The OSCE and other election monitors need
to redouble their effort to ensure a fair and free vote to keep the
country from plunging into political violence and destabilizing an
already turbulent region. The independent media needs to be vigilant
to and report freely any and all attempts to steal Turkey’s election.
Ultimately, it is up to Turkish voters to reject Erdogan’s call for
the disenfranchisement of 20 percent of Turkey’s population, and the
further erosion of Turkey’s democracy.
with more than 10 years of experience in campaigns, project
management, non-profit development and government and media relations.
He holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University’s
Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. in Diplomacy and World Affairs
from Occidental College. He served as a Coro Fellow in Pittsburgh,
PA, and is a two-time Richter Scholar who has conducted research about
Armenia and Javakhk.
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Verelq: Gevorg Kostanyan resigned from the position of RA representative at the ECHR
207
Four deputy ministers of justice appointed
Category
Politics
Chess: Armenia’s Shant Sargsyan leads in World Youth Stars
MediaMax, Armenia
Armenia’s Shant Sargsyan leads in World Youth Stars
Photo: Mediamax
Two Armenian chess players recorded wins in the second round of the World Youth Stars tournament.
Shant Sargsyan beat Nikolozi Kacharava (Georgia) and Mamikon Gharibyan defeated Volodar Murzin (Russia). Another Armenian player Aram Hakobyan shared points with Sergei Lobanov (Russia).
Sargsyan now tops the tournament table with 1.5 point, while Gharibyan and Hakobyan trail behind with 1 point each.