The California
Courier Online, September 7, 2023
1- 500 Immoral
European Rabbis
Sell Their
Souls to the Azeri Devil
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- LA City
Council Dedicates Brentwood Intersection
as Republic
of Artsakh Square
3- City of Pasadena Appoints Koko
Panossian
as Director
of Parks, Recreation & Community Services
4- Tadem Press
Publishes Second Volume:
‘At Four
O’Clock in the Afternoon’ and
‘Bones and
Bodies, We Had to Walk Over Them’
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1- 500 Immoral
European Rabbis
Sell Their
Souls to the Azeri Devil
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Last month, I wrote about two groups of ‘Righteous Jews’ who
urged the government of Israel
to intervene with Azerbaijan
to open the Lachin Corridor.
The first group of 17 Israelis, including Rabbis,
journalists and scholars, sent a letter to the Foreign Minister of Israel on
January 15, 2023. The second group of 35 Israelis, including Rabbis, scholars,
journalists, a former Cabinet Minister and Knesset Member, architects and
scientists, sent a letter to the President of Israel.
Contrast the righteous actions of the above two Israeli
groups to the immoral behavior of 500 European Rabbis who are planning to hold
a conference in Azerbaijan in November at the invitation of Pres. Ilham Aliyev,
the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) reported. The visit is organized by the
Orthodox rabbinical alliance in Europe that unites more than 700 religious
leaders from communities across Europe.
“Azerbaijan
is a place with a special memory for the Jewish people, and is home to one of
the most unique Jewish communities in the world,” said Rabbi Pinchas
Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis who met with Aliyev
earlier this year.
Rabbi Goldschmidt’s words were followed by the ridiculous
statement of Elchin Amirbayov, the representative of Pres. Aliyev: “The fact
that this European rabbinical conference will be held here in Baku is recognition of people feeling safe
here; it is just the right place.” Equally ridiculous was the statement of
Rabbi Zamir Isayev of Baku, who told JNS that Azerbaijan “is much safer than any country in Europe.” These Rabbis must have forgotten that just two
months ago a terrorist group plotted to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Baku.
JNS reported that “the planned trip comes amid burgeoning
relations between Israel and
Azerbaijan
that developed from a centuries-long affinity between the two nations into an
unprecedented strategic partnership.” How could relations between Israel and Azerbaijan
have a “centuries-long affinity” since Azerbaijan
became a state only in 1918 and Israel
in 1948?
In fact, relations between the two countries are not based
on ‘affinity’ at all, but on Azerbaijan supplying almost half of Israel’s
energy needs, while Israel sells to Azerbaijan over $5 billion of arms — 70% of
its sophisticated weapons, including illegal cluster bombs — which Baku used
during the 2020 War to kill and injure thousands of Armenian soldiers.
Rushing to gloat over the pending arrival of European Rabbis
in Baku, Aze.Media published an article under the title: “A rabbinical
conference in Muslim Azerbaijan,” reporting that “the Azerbaijani nation prides
itself on having a rich multi-culturalism policy, which gives equal respect to
all faiths and religions living in Azerbaijan.” This is a complete lie as all
minorities in Azerbaijan
suffer from discrimination and massive violation of human rights. Native Azeris
themselves are victims of prosecution by Azerbaijan’s government in case
they say anything critical about Pres. Aliyev.
Azerbaijan’s
love affair for Israel
and Jews has a much more sinister agenda than the simple exchange of oil for
weapons. It is prompted by Azerbaijan’s
anti-Semitism under the false belief that “Jews control everything in America,” and if Azerbaijan
is nice to Jews, then they will influence the United States to have a
pro-Azerbaijani stance. This is Baku’s obvious
plan to counter the Armenian ‘lobby’ in the United States.
While Turkey
and Azerbaijan woo American
Jews and Israel hoping to
benefit from their lobbying in the United States,
it is unwise of Israel
and Jews to go along and reinforce the anti-Semitic attitude of Azeri
officials. The group of immoral European Rabbis is under the mistaken
impression that Azeris welcome them with open arms because of their love for
Jews. These Rabbis do not realize that they are simply allowing themselves to
be exploited by Azerbaijan
for its perceived political gains.
Even though Israel
opened its Embassy in Baku in 1993, Azerbaijan established its Embassy in Tel Aviv
in 2023, only after announcing the opening of its representative office in
Ramallah, West Bank, the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority, to
counter the backlash from many Muslims within Azerbaijan and around the world.
French historian Marc Knobel wrote an indignant article in
Le Point French newspaper on August 8, harshly criticizing the European Rabbis’
planned trip to Baku.
Knobel wrote: “Gentlemen Rabbis, I am ashamed and I am Jewish.” Importantly, he
reported that Haim Korsia, the Chief Rabbi of France,
will not accompany the other Rabbis to Azerbaijan
“to flatter the dictator of Baku
and will not allow himself to be bribed by such a regime.”
The 500 immoral European Rabbis, instead of siding with the
starving 120,000 Artsakh Armenians, are selling their souls to the devil in Baku.
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2- LA City Council Dedicates Brentwood Intersection
as Republic
of Artsakh Square
A Brentwood intersection was dedicated Thursday as Republic
of Artsakh Square in an effort to raise awareness of the Azerbaijan
blockade of Artsakh and its impacts.
The Los Angeles City Council voted in May to designate the
intersection of Wilshire Boulevard
and Granville Avenue
as Republic of Artsakh Square in honor of the embattled region that has great
meaning for Southern California’s vast
Armenian community.
Azerbaijan’s
Los Angeles
consulate is located at the intersection..
“Azerbaijan’s dictator has explicitly threatened genocide
and called for the expulsion of all Armenians from territories he claims, once
again threatening the annihilation of the Armenian people in their ancient
homeland,” City Council President Paul Krekorian said in a statement when the
council approved the designation of the intersection.
The Republic of Artsakh, formerly known as the Republic of
Nagorno-Karabakh, seceded from the Soviet Union
and formed a democratic state. It is surrounded by the territory
of Azerbaijan and only has access to Armenia and the outside world through the Lachin
Corridor, which is now being cut off by the armed forces of Azerbaijan.
The territory of the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic
is internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. It is called Artsakh by
Armenians.
Azerbaijan
Consul General Ramil Gurbanov issued a statement Thursday expressing his “deep
concern regarding the decision of the Los Angeles City Council to name the
intersection of Wilshire and Granville streets as “republic of artsakh square”
and unveiling of street signs. This provocative act goes against international
law, the spirit of peace, and confidence-building in the region and undermines
the efforts of international diplomacy.”
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3- City of Pasadena Appoints Koko Panossian
as Director
of Parks, Recreation & Community Services
PASADENA—After an extensive
recruitment process, City Manager Miguel Márquez announced the appointment of
former Pasadena
resident and long-time City of Glendale Parks & Recreation leader Koko
Panossian as the new Director of Pasadena’s Parks, Recreation & Community
Services (PRCS) Department. Panossian will begin his service in Pasadena on October 2,
2023.
Panossian currently serves as the Deputy Director of the
City of Glendale Community Services & Parks, directing all aspects of park
operations and planning, managing 46 park and recreation facilities, creating
and overseeing innovative programming, and providing support to cultural and
arts programs and personnel.
“I am very excited to have Koko join our leadership team,”
said Márquez. “His extensive experience in all aspects of a large municipal
parks and community services department is invaluable, as is his ability to
connect with a variety of constituencies regardless of interests, level of
involvement, or socioeconomic status. I look forward to our residents getting
to know Koko in the months ahead.”
Panossian has worked in various roles in the City of
Glendale Community Services & Parks for two decades. Prior to being
appointed as Deputy Director, he served as a Parks Services Administrator, a
Senior Park Services Manager, and as an Administrative Assistant. In addition
to his experience in managing parks, facilities, and programming, he has
extensive experience in budgeting, personnel, communications, government
relations, and capital planning. A certified arborist, Panossian holds numerous
certifications including from the National Recreation and Park Association, the
California Park and Recreation Society, the
National Playground Safety Institute, and the International Society of
Arboriculture.
“I believe in the profound impact public spaces and programming
can have on a community,” said Panossian. “As a public servant, l strive to
give my best to our profession. To serve as the Director of Parks, Recreation,
and Community Services in Pasadena–the
community where I grew up–is an opportunity of a lifetime. I am honored to
lead the Pasadena
Parks, Recreation and
Community Services Department. As someone who grew up in this great city, I
recognize the strength of our community and the potential for what we can do
together. I cannot wait to get started.”
He is a graduate of Pasadena’s
John Muir
High School, earned two Bachelor of
Arts degrees from the University of California, Irvine, in
Political Science and International Studies, and he holds a Master of Public
Administration and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Southern California. Panossian and his
wife, Azig, have two daughters, Haylee and Aleena.
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4- Tadem Press
Publishes Second Volume:
‘At Four
O’Clock in the Afternoon’ and
‘Bones and
Bodies, We Had to Walk Over Them’
Tadem Press, a new imprint dedicated to publishing primary
sources on the Armenian Genocide, has published its second volume: Guleeg
Haroian, At Four O’clock in the Afternoon, and Eva Hightaian (née Haroian),
Bones and Bodies, We Had To Walk Over Them.
At Four O’clock in the Afternoon is the oral history of
Haroian, a woman who survived both the 1895 Great Massacres and the 1915
Genocide and went on to work for the vorperhavak (“collection of orphans”).
This is the only oral history available in the English language of a woman who
went through both the 1895 Great Massacres and the 1915 Genocide.
Bones and Bodies, We Had To Walk Over Them is the oral
history of Hightaian (née Haroian), the nine-year-old daughter of Haroian who
was separated from her mother and deported in 1915 along with two sisters and
an Aunt. She survived through forced transfer into a Muslim household.
The afterword is written by
Rebecca Jinks, Comparative Genocide Scholar, Holocaust Research
Institute and Department of History: Conflict, Violence, and Terrorism Research
Center, Royal Holloway – University of London. Jinks compares the experiences
of captured and reclaimed Armenian women and children to that of three others:
indigenous children in Australia and North America who were removed from their
families and placed in boarding schools to teach them the “white man’s ways”;
women from Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities who were abducted, and raped, and
forcibly married into different religious communities during the Partition in India
in 1947; and to Yezidi women and children were kidnapped by Islamic State (IS)
forces, distributed or sold to IS fighters and supporters, and kept as slaves
in 2014.
The editor’s foreword is written by Gil Harootunian,
Fulbright Senior Lecturer and Researcher (Armenia).
For more information, visit www.tadempress.com
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