Author: Kajoyan Gevork

NKR DEFENSE ARMY SERVICEMEN NEUTRALIZE THREE AZERI SOLDIERS

by Ashot Safaryan

Monday, March 2, 12:26

The tension on the Line of Contact of the Nagorno- Karabakh and Azeri
troops has recently escalated and the number of cases of ceasefire
violation and sabotage attacks by Azerbaijan has considerably
increased.

When rebuffing one of such attacks, the Armenian side suffered losses.

Armenian Defense Ministry Spokesman Artsrun Hovhannisyan says
that Armenian servicemen Artak Aghekyan and Hayk Baroyan were
killed. The Armenian servicemen neutralized three Azeri soldiers. “The
responsibility for the escalation lies on the military and political
leadership of Azerbaijan. We call on the international community to
pay attention to this”, says Hovhannisyan.

SO-CALLED ELECTIONS IN OCCUPIED KARABAKH IS ILLEGAL – AZERBAIJANI FOREIGN MINISTRY

The Azerbaijan State Telegraph Agency
Feb 27 2015

27.02.2015 [14:19]

Baku, February 27, AZERTAC

According to the reports circulated by the mass media outlets of the
Republic of Armenia, the so-called “elections” to the “parliament”
of the puppet separatist regime are planned to be held in the
Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan on 3 May 2015.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan
issued a statement in this regard. The so-called “elections” to the
“parliament” of the puppet separatist regime planned to be held in
the Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan on May 3,
2015 is illegal, spokesman for the Azerbaijani foreign ministry Hikmet
Hajiyev said.

“The holding of “elections” is a clear violation of the Constitution
of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the norms and principles of
international law, and, therefore, shall have no legal effect
whatsoever,” he said. “This “elections” are aimed at undermining the
negotiation process on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement.”

“In 1993, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolutions
822 (1993), 853 (1993), 874 (1993) and 884 (1993), condemning the
occupation of the territories of Azerbaijan and reaffirming respect
for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of
Azerbaijan and the inviolability of its internationally recognized
borders,” the Azerbaijani foreign ministry’s statement says.

“In those resolutions, the Security Council also confirmed that the
Nagorno-Karabakh region is part of Azerbaijan, and demanded immediate,
complete and unconditional withdrawal of the occupying forces from
all the occupied territories of Azerbaijan. Other international
organizations have adopted a similar position.

“The Republic of Azerbaijan once again calls on the Armenian
side, instead of wasting time and misleading its own people and
the international community, to cease its policy of annexation
and ethnic cleansing and to engage constructively in the conflict
settlement process and comply with its international obligations,
the statement says.

ASSYRIANS IN CALIFORNIA TO PRAY FOR THOSE KIDNAPPED, THREATENED BY ISIS

The Pasadena Star-News, CA
Feb 27 2015

By Susan Abram, Los Angeles Daily News

The woman who entered St. Mary’s Assyrian Church of the East on
Thursday morning kissed the foot of a cross, then cried out a
tearful plea.

“Please, God, please help the innocent,” she said in an ancient
language inside the San Fernando Valley church. “Please save them.”

Her prayers reflect an ache that has settled into the hearts and minds
of Assyrians far and wide since Monday, when the Islamic State, also
known as ISIS, pillaged three dozen Assyrian Christian villages along
the Khabur River in northeastern Syria. They burned down homes and
churches, kidnapped more than 200 people, mostly women and children,
and threatened to execute them if the Kurdish militias in the region
do not release several ISIS militant prisoners.

It’s the latest Middle East crisis for Assyrians, who were among the
first Christians in the world, said Cor-Bishop Father George Bet Rasho,
who heads St. Mary’s Parish in Tarzana.

Bet Rasho said the kidnappings and the displacement of 3,000 people
have prompted a worldwide call for Assyrian churches in California
and across the nation to hold a special prayer vigil Friday night. His
hope is that people of all faiths in the community will join them at
7:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s at 5955 Lindley Ave. in Tarzana to pray for
the helpless.

“We’re praying that ISIS will not parade these women and children in
cages and burn them,” he said, referring to the Jordanian pilot who was
burned alive by ISIS earlier this month. “We’re hoping for a miracle.”

To say the Assyrians’ plight is dire is an understatement, Bet Rasho
and others said. Assyrians are the indigenous people of Mesopotamia,
presently Iraq, where the last and largest concentration of
Aramaic-speaking people in the world have lived for thousands of years.

But after the start of the second Gulf War in 2003, an estimated
half-million Assyrians fled to Syria because of a surge of Islamic
extremist attacks against them and other Christian minorities. Then
the Syrian civil war began, and the ranks of ISIS swelled.

Since the takeover in June of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city,
ISIS has targeted the Christian population, whose faith has been
present for almost 2,000 years. Assyrians were forced to flee again.

The U.S. State Department this week released a statement condemning
the militants’ actions “in the strongest possible terms.”

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, of Burbank, is the top Democrat of the House
Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He introduced a bill
recently for use of military force against ISIS that would prohibit
the use of American ground forces in a combat mission. Schiff said the
White House is trying to determine how many people have been kidnapped,
where they have been taken and ways to liberate them. There also are
ongoing efforts to support the Christian and non-Christian groups
fighting to protect the villages, Schiff said.

“People are not only being kidnapped, but women are being forced
into slavery, men are murdered and churches are burned in an effort
to eradicate their history,” he said Thursday.

“Every effort has to be made to protect these communities, to seek
the safe return of those kidnapped, and to stop this evil that goes
by the name of Islamic State,” Schiff said.

Schiff, who has sought U.S. recognition for the Armenian Genocide,
said he can understand why Christians in the Middle East have drawn
parallels to that event that began exactly a century ago this year. An
estimated 1.5 million Armenians from the Ottoman Empire died from
1915-23 in what was called the first genocide of the 20th century.

Though the Turkish government still denies it, Armenians say the
killings involved the systematic cleansing of Christians, which
included Assyrians and Pontic Greeks.

“It does harken back for both Armenians and Assyrians to terrible
chapters in the past in efforts to exterminate them,” Schiff said.

“I’ve been concerned about these communities ever since civil war
began in Syria. We’re only seeing that trend continue and accelerate
with the execution of the Coptic Christians, with the kidnapping of
Assyrians, and the displacement of Armenians in Kessab.”

Members of A Demand for Action, a group founded last year to raise
awareness and create a safe haven in Iraq for indigenous people and
minorities, said they will continue to press legislators to make sure
some action is taken to avoid the deaths of those kidnapped.

“We are devastated, frightened and horrified,” said Nuri Kino, founder
of the group. Kino said families of the abducted who call relatives’
cellphones in Syria hear the phrase “Allahu akbar,” or “God is Great.

This is the Islamic State.”

“We will not rest before we have the help of the world leaders,” Kino
said. “If ISIS increases its power it, will be the worst threat to
the world since the Nazis. The president of the United States needs
to speak out and save our victims. Our militias need more support. We
and the Kurds together are the only ones who can save those areas. U.S.

has to send airstrikes to give us assistance and boots on the ground.”

Meanwhile religious leaders such as Bet Rasho say they are often
confronted by questions of faith, and by those who express anger and
frustration in a world that seems to have forgotten them.

“Sometimes we don’t know the reasons for things,” Bet Rasho said. “But
we do know there is a God who provides us with the air we breathe,
that there is more good in the world than evil and that we can’t give
up. When we give up hope, that is when we lose.”

EX-TURKISH POLICE CHIEF DETAINED OVER ALLEGED NEGLIGENCE IN ARMENIAN JOURNALIST’S KILLING

Daily Journal
Feb 26 2015

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s state-run news agency says a former police
intelligence chief has been detained as part of an investigation
into negligence by officials in the 2007 murder of an ethnic Armenian
journalist.

Anadolu Agency says Ramazan Akyurek was detained Thursday in Ankara
for the death of Hrant Dink.

Dink was gunned down outside his Agos newspaper by a nationalist
teenage gunman who was convicted in 2011. The trial, however, failed
to shed light on alleged official negligence or even collusion.

Akyurek’s detention follows a court ruling in June that reopened a
negligence probe.

Akyurek was among hundreds of police removed from their posts amid
a purge of officers believed to be linked to a movement led by a
U.S.-based Islamic cleric, which is accused of orchestrating corruption
allegations targeting officials.

Turkey, the Legacy of Silence – New Documentary needs your support

Posted by
Garo Kotchounian
February 23, 2015

A documentary and a web-series about four Turks discovering their
Armenian origins… and breaking silence.

BREAKING THE SILENCE

To DONATE or Support this Project Click HERE

For the past two years, driven by a desire to give voice to the
Armenian survivors, we have been working on Turkey, the Legacy of
Silence. We are currently seeking funds to complete the project in
time for a release in April 2015, fundamental date for all the
Armenians of the World. In fact, they will commemorate the century of
the genocide of their ancestors in Anatolia. Staging four similar but
distinct characters, Turkey, the Legacy of Silence is a documentary
and an interactive web series which illustrates the universal story of
secrets and the unsaid.

Through the stories of Nazli, Armen, Dogukan and Yasar, we will reveal
the weight of silence, still burdened by thousands of Armenian
descendant families. Our seek is what has never been told, what has
been hidden for a century.

Armen, Dogukan, Yasar and Nazli are Turks and Kurds. However a
surprising discovery drastically changed their lives : they are also
Armenian. Their parents and grandparents survived the genocide of
1915. They were all assimilated in turkish and kurdish families and
converted to Islam to save their lives. Since then, the secret has
been kept. After a century of silence, History is reappearing.
Actually seeking for their ancestors story, Armen, Dogukan, Yasar and
Nazli are ready for anything : searching, asking, angering, hoping…

Yasar Kurt, famous musician in Turkey, learned at the age of 39 that
he was Armenian. With us at his side, he sets out for the first time
to his great-grandfather’s village, in an attempt to find the traces
of his history.

Armen, 54 years old, found the official registers proving that the
vast majority of his family was decimated in 1915, and that his father
was converted. Today he is trying to give new life to his identity
through the church of Diyarbakir, in Turkish Kurdistan.

Nazli, 36 years old, wants to pass on her long-hidden Armenian
identity to her seven-year-old son. This woman has been fighting with
Turkish authorities for two years in order to enroll her son in an
Armenian school.

Dogukan, 22 years old, made the highly symbolic decision of
reconverting to Christianity. He will be baptized as Sevag, the name
of a murdered Armenian in 2011 during his military service.

During this documentary, we sight to understand why these stories
remained so long in the shadow. Many families were aware of this
reality. But it disappeared from History as if nothing happened. We
now know that they survived at the cost of abandoning their name,
language, religion and most of their traditions.

Why keep silence for a century long ? What has this legacy of silence
hid during decades ? Since ten years now, increasing numbers of Turks
have discovered this familial ans societal secret, maintained by
Turkish state. These people are now proclaiming the Armenian heritage
of their ancestors. Turkey, the Legacy of Silence gives a face to the
descendants of these Islamized Armenians, who number more than a
million people in Turkey today.

A DUTY OF REMEMBRANCE

Turkey, the Legacy of Silence isn’t only the touching story of four
people, this is also a worldwide call to the duty of remembrance.
Among the survivors of the genocide, some fled the country. Others
remained in Turkey. But the price of their survival was high :
assimilation, conversion to Islam, and above all, silence about their
origins. Today, despite the risks, fear and shame,Armen, Dogukan,
Yasar and Nazli have the courage to break the taboo on their Armenian
roots and show their faces. For them, this heritage has finally come
out of oblivion, traditions must be born again, their stories must be
told.

A DOCUMENTARY AND A WEB-SERIES

The documentary :

We are writing a 52′ documentary which will be broadcasted, for the
moment, on a french TV channel : Toute l’Histoire. During the film, we
will be guided by Armen, Dogukan, Yasar and Nazli in Istanbul and
through eastern Turkey and follow them in their Armenian identity
seek. These stories will be enhanced by historical archives and
commented by experts. We can also count on the support of the Institut
Anadolu Kültür in Turkey, an organization striving for dialogue
between Turkey’s different communities.

The five experts of the documentary

Fethiye Çetin. Lawyer and activist for turkish human rights. Her book
My Grandmother : A Memoir relates the story of her Armenian
Grandmother who survived the genocide by converting to Islam.

Ayse Gül Altınay. Turk sociologist. She works on nationalism and the
duty of remembrance. She wrote, with Fethiye Cetin, The Grandchildren,
which presents the testimony of 24 descendants of genocide survivors.

Yves Ternon. French historian. His works concerns crimes against
Humanity and especially the Armenian genocide.

Hamit Bozarslan. History and science politics PHD. He writes about
violence and minorities in Middle East. He’s the author of Histoire de
la Turquie. De l’Empire à nos jours.

Adnan Celik. Kurd anthropologist. He’s one the rare expert about the
islamized Armenians in Diyarbakir.

The web-series :

To reach the younger generations we planned using the medium of video,
easy to use and share, in a form that is familiar to them : the web
series. 5 video episodes of 8 minutes each will be released online
every three days until April 24, 2015. The stories of each character
are rich enough to perfectly adapt to a series format. In parallel to
the central narrative, we have developed 10 chronological markers of
1-2 minutes each (2 per episode), which will portray the events of
1915. Each of them is illustrated by drawings and will be personified
by a voice over.

The public will be invited to offer testimony on the website. This
space will be open for three months, under the careful advance control
of moderators. We will also launch a call to Internet users around the
world so they can answer this question : “Why is it so important to
break the silence ?”

Screen capture of the web-series

Illustrations for the web-series, by Aline Rollin

WHO WE ARE ?

Anna Benjamin, co-author and co-director

I know little about the immigration of my maternal grandparents to
France, or their life in Turkey. My grandfather was from a village
near Ismit. My grandmother was conceived in Istanbul and was born on
the exile road. Today I have decided to tell a part of their story, by
remaining connected to the present.

For Armenians, speaking of the genocide is often a painful moment that
provokes passionate debates. Today, I have found the project that best
depicts my vision : as a young journalist and as an Armenian
descendant, I want to re-establish the memory of the genocide in
modern-day Turkey. I also want to initiate dialogue between the two
communities.

Guillaume Clere, co-author and co-director

I lived for four years in Lebanon, not far from Turkey. The Land of
the Cedars did not experience the genocide, but its problems of
identity led to a terrible civil war that has ended only in
appearance. Most of the people I met saw themselves as Shiite, Druze,
Assyrian or Maronite first, and Lebanese only second.
L’Orient-Le-Jour, I witnessed confrontations in Beirut between Shiites
and Sunnis. Those four years taught me how deadly the question of
identity could be. When Anna told me she intended to work on the
Armenian genocide, I jumped at the chance to join her. The idea about
exploring the topic of silence around identity in a culturally rich
country such as Turkey, strengthened my desire to participate in this
project.

Jules Valeur, sound engineer

He collaborates with a number of documentary production companies
(Ciné Tamaris, Yami 2, Mosaïque Films…). He currently works as a boom
operator and sound engineer for various projects including short and
feature-length films and web documentaries.

Avril Ladauge, web-designer

Always seeking to find the best user experience, I enjoy exploring the
new stories made possible by the digital experience, and utilizing its
tools to tell the stories that move me. When Anna and Guillaume
presented their idea of mixing testimony, web-based participation, and
new technologies, I didn’t hesitate for a second to accept this
beautiful and creative venture.

Aline Rollin, illustrator

She divides her time between sketch reporting, educational
illustration and information graphics. Illustrating Turkey, the Legacy
of Silence has involved the exciting challenge of bringing forth, from
the historical archives, drawings that are noticeable and narrative.

OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

At the moment, we went four times in Turkey. We spent one month and a
half scouting Anatolia to find Armenian descendants. Last July, we
spent one month shooting the images of the documentary. Finally, in
december, we went to Istanbul for one last shooting journey.

The intense writing and field work were made possible by the public
and crowd funding we gathered this last year. With the support of our
production company Découpages, we won a writing and production help
allowed by the CNC (Centre National du Cinéma et de l’image animée).
Turkey, The Legacy of Silence won also two categories in the 2014
Première Caméra prize (documentary and web documentary) organized by
Kisskissbankbank, the agency CAPA, France Info (Radio France group)
and the AB Groupe. These financial supports allows us to offer Turkey,
the Legacy of Silence in two forms.

TAKE ACTION

Until April 2015, we still have A LOT to do : Logging, editing,
standardizing, translating, illustrating, developing, testing,
promoting, and then, at last, broadcasting. For the moment, we still
lack funds to edit the web series, develop the web site and translate
the film in english…

To honor the memory of Armenian History, to mark the genocide century
and reveal the silence, this work must be accomplished by the best
professionals. Once that’s done, we have to promote the project
worldwide, outside France. Especially in Armenia, Turkey, United
States, Russia, Argentina, Canada… For every Armenians of the planet,
youth and elders.

Your help will make this film possible !

If you appreciate this project, you can support it financially, you
can share it and talk about it.

Let’s get in contact! Suggestions, remarks, support, anything. Even if
it’s just for a tap in the back, any gesture is significant.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter !

THANK YOU VERY MUCH !

Anna & Guillaume.

UPDATE NEWS !

January : Editing is reaching to an end! We should be able to show the
movie to festival organizers very soon!

February : Silence! Recording french version voices in the studios.

BROADCASTS

– Valence, April 11th
– Vienne, April 12th
– Paris, to be determined

Armenia PM and Kuwait ambassador discuss bilateral relations

16:53, 28.02.2015

YEREVAN. – The Prime Minister of Armenia, Hovik Abrahamyan, received
Kuwaiti Ambassador Bassam Mohammed Al Qabandi.

The ambassador conveyed to Abrahamyan the warm greetings by the
Kuwaiti PM, and added that his country’s government looks toward
strengthening and expanding ties with Armenia.

Subsequently, the interlocutors discussed matters relating to the
Armenian Premier’s forthcoming official visit to Kuwait.

The parties also underscored the further development and strengthening
of relations between the two countries, and reflected on these
relations.

Armenia News – NEWS.am

Thomas Melia calls Turkey to reconcile with Armenians

12:34, 28 February, 2015

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS: The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of
State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Thomas Melia
called Turkey to reconcile with Armenia ahead of the centennial of the
Armenian Genocide. Armenpress reports, citing the Turkish Haberler
that Melia talked about it during the meeting with the journalists in
Turkey.

In response to the question on the position of the US President Barack
Obama on the Armenian Genocide, Melia stated that the US government
expects reconciliation of the Armenian and the Turkish nations. “We
hope that the Turkish society and the Turkish state will use this
centennial as a chance for a historic reconciliation”, – he said.

Gagik Tsarukyan not to leave politics – Gurgen Yeghiazaryan

16:00 / 27.02.2015

Our economy is in desperate condition and those who made it so left
for other side of the ocean and today is meeting with different
representatives of US Congress giving interviews without a bit of
shame, political figure Gurgen Yeghiazaryan told the reporters on
Friday.

He said we are the only country in the world the diplomats of which
stay in the country they served after the end of their mission.
Yeghiazaryan stressed that Armenia is to face difficult days. “I think
we must get rid of this authorities in 2015. The talks that Gagik
Tsarukyan must leave the party are being circulated. This person faces
a Constitution which is being violated if necessary and followed if
necessary. The Armenian laws are acting just for a group of people,”
he said. The political figure stressed that everything is being done
to make Serzh Sargsyan serve longer.

Asked with who he ties the change the power, Yeghiazaryan said, “I am
one of them. There is opposition which is going to conduct a rally on
March 1 in the Freedom Square. I do not believe that Gagik Tsarukyan
will leave politics as hundred thousands of people are waiting for his
word. I believe that he will speak out. The PAP has not done anything
bad. If a wrong thing has been done, it was done by the authorities
with their attacks and insults,” Yeghiazaryan said.

Martiros Saryan portrayed a different Armenia, today marks the
painter’s birthday

14:46, 28 February, 2015

YEREVAN, 28 FEBRUARY, ARMENPRESS. Great patriot, phenomenal painter,
intellectual…The friends and relatives of Martiros Saryan, as well as
art lovers and those who appreciate his work gathered near the statue
of the painter and paid tribute to him on February 28th, which marks
Saryan’s birthday. This year marks the painter’s 135th birthday
anniversary.

Director of the Home-Museum of Martiros Saryan, the painter’s
granddaughter Ruzan Saryan says Saryan was eternal. “We celebrate this
day and take pride once again in the fact that the Armenian nation has
individuals like Martiros Saryan who left a legacy and art that we can
be proud of,”the painter’s granddaughter mentioned, as “Armenpress”
reports. Ruzan Saryan is certain that many foreigners view Saryan’s
paintings and visit Armenia to see what a heavenly land is portrayed
in his paintings.

Sculptor Levon Tokmajyan is the creator of the statue of Martiros
Saryan. “When I was working on the statue for years, I would ask
myself what Saryan should look like. He described Armenia for us
through his paintings. Armenians have many gifted painters who have
portrayed Mount Ararat, but no painter saw Armenia as Saryan did.
Saryan is the symbol of the Armenian nation. The sun and light are
seen in his art,” Levon Tokmajyan mentioned.

Rebuilding from the Rubble of Sumgait

Friday, February 27th, 2015
by Serouj Aprahamian

The majority of the members in the all-female Gomk Agricultural
Cooperative are refugees who fled from Azerbaijan and resettled in
Armenia after independence.

BY SEROUJ APRAHAMIAN

GOMK, Armenia–On February 27, 1988, Armenians living in the city of
Sumgait were subject to a brutal pogrom by rampaging mobs. These
massacres spilled into the towns of Baku and Kirovobad, as well. Two
years later, Armenian civilians living in the Azerbaijani capital of
Baku were likewise attacked for seven days straight.

Over 200,000 Armenians were forced to flee and find refuge in Armenia
as a result of these incidents and the ensuing war in
Nagorno-Karabakh. With the trauma of massacre in their minds and
little to nothing to their name, they were forced to start again in
the newly independent republic of Armenia.

Mariam Abrahamyan, a resident of the border village of Gomk, is one
such survivor. Originally from Baku, she fled with her husband and
newborn baby, settling in Gomk in the summer of 1988.

“My husband was a taxi driver in Baku,” she explains. “Two men sat in
his cab one day and he overheard them talking about Sumgait, saying
the same fate awaited Armenians in Baku. He knew from that day on that
if we stayed, we would be struck down too.”

With nowhere to hide, the family fled the country with other refugees.
They arrived in Armenia without a cent in their pocket. They didn’t
even know how to speak Armenian.

They were given a small house by the government, but transitioning
from an urban life to a rural one was a major challenge in itself. The
family had to learn farming, animal husbandry, and adapt to the
hardships of the countryside.

“The important thing is that they didn’t destroy us,” says
Abarahamyan. “They weren’t able to kill us.”

Like Abrahamyan, the majority of families in Gomk are refugees from
Azerbaijan. The will to survive and stick together as a community is
what got them through the “dark years” of the early 1990’s and allowed
them to rebuild from the rubble of war.

“Our happiness and strength comes from the fact that people assist
each other here [in Gomk],” says Abrahamyan. “Nobody’s life is easy
but all you have to do is pick up the phone and they’ll be there to
help you.”

In 2012, Abrahamyan joined an Oxfam-sponsored initiative to form an
agricultural cooperative in the village. Together with other female
farmers, she operates a greenhouse that grows tomatoes, green beans,
cucumbers and other crops. The all-female cooperative is run
democratically as a social enterprise, which allocates a percentage of
its annual funds to social projects in the community.

The greenhouse has proven to be an efficient source of income and
empowerment for the residents of Gomk. By pooling their resources
together, they are seeing that they can develop economies of scale and
better resolve the socio-economic problems in their village.

In turn, the solidarity and success of the cooperative has reinforced
Abrahamyan’s commitment to the land. As someone who has felt the
trauma of massacre and ethnic cleansing, she is quick to emphasize the
security of living in her homeland.

“This is where I feel safe and welcome,” explains Abrahamyan when
asked if she has ever thought about leaving the country. “No one in
the village has any negative intent towards us. Everyone in this
village is like a family. I feel secure here.”

The story of Abrahamyan and the female farmers of Gomk is one of
overcoming the carnage of massacre with the will to persevere and
rebuild. What’s more, Abrahamyan and fellow cooperative members are
leading the way in offering an alternative mode of development for the
country–one based on solidarity and sustainability, rather than
individualism and exploitation.

Twenty-seven years after the Sumgait pogroms, it is important not only
to remember the suffering caused in those horrific days but also the
remarkable perseverance of those who survived.

Those interested in lending a hand to Mariam and the Gomk Agricultural
Cooperative in their current drive to purchase a mini-tractor for
their greenhouse can make a secure online donation today.