Author: Kalantarian Kevo

From l to r: (From Left) Vice President Peter Baghdassarian, President Al Cabraloff, the Shrikchian Family & AEF Fundraising Chair Melody

More than $560,000 was raised at the Armenian Educational Foundation’s donor appreciation dinner on Sunday, May 15 at the home of Harry and Shireen Shirikchian. Over 140 supporters, sponsors and members attended the evening event.

The program kicked off with AEF President, Al Cabraloff, opening the evening with a brief update report on the AEF. Some highlights included the completion of 8 school renovation projects in Armenia and Artsakh in 2021. He also highlighted that AEF provided over 1,000 scholarships in 2021 to university students in Armenia, Artsakh and Javakhk.

Vahik Petrossian, AEF Scholarship Chair, presented an overview of the current status of the scholarship program as well as the desperate need to continue to raise funds to support more students, including for our wounded soldiers and veterans. During the event, AEF announced a $100,000 donation from the Armenian Wounded Heroes Fund to cover scholarships for wounded soldiers and veterans of the 2020 war and another 15 new donors confirmed support for over 50 additional four-year scholarships for university students in Armenia and Artsakh.

The guests listen to a presentation about AEF’s activities

During acknowledgments, AEF also announced major gifts from benefactors including a $100,000 donation from Mr. & Mrs. Rafik & Helly Khatchaturian, as well as a $50,000 contribution from Mr. & Mrs. Bobken and Hasmik Amirian.

AEF’s Fundraising Chair, Melody Petrossian, commented, “The success of our fundraising directly impacts the future we can give our Armenian youth and we are grateful to our donors who continue to entrust the AEF with the responsibility to assist Armenian students with its programs.”

The Armenian Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization established in 1950. Since 2000, AEF has disbursed over $11.4M for various education programs, including $5.2M renovating over 200 village schools in Armenia, Artsakh and Javakhk and $4.3 million in scholarships.

For more information on the Armenian Educational Foundation or to donate online, please visit www.aefweb.org.

ANKARA 

The spokesman for Turkiye’s Justice and Development (AK) Party on Thursday praised the country’s policy on migration management. 

“Our citizens, who have rightfully expressed their concerns about Turkiye’s demographic security, should know that this issue is being followed. We are highly sensitive about Turkiye’s demographic security,” said Omer Celik during an AK Party Central Decision and Executive Board meeting chaired by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Celik decried recent provocations against Turkiye over the issue of migration, saying: “Turkiye has both experience and a policy on migration management. The country is effectively fighting against irregular migration.”

“On the one hand, Turkiye is making efforts to solve the problem at its source. On the other hand, effective security measures are taken at the border,” he said.

Celik noted that Turkiye always has a policy that takes into account its demographic security, adding that efforts are underway to send asylum seekers to their countries voluntarily and with dignity.

Normalization with Armenia

Celik also said that Turkiye is closely following the developments regarding the ongoing normalization process with Armenia.

“Recently, we see that some lobbies in the Armenian diaspora are making a special effort to sabotage this process. We follow the developments,” Celik noted.

“Until now, normalization talks have been progressing in a constructive and target-oriented manner,” he added.

The third meeting of envoys from Turkiye and Armenia for the normalization of ties was held on May 3.

The Turkish and Armenian envoys reaffirmed their goal of “achieving full normalization,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement following the meeting.

Ambassador Serdar Kilic was named Turkiye’s special envoy to discuss steps towards normalization with neighboring Armenia on Dec. 15, 2021. Three days later, Armenia appointed Deputy Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Ruben Rubinyan as its own special representative.

The first round of talks was held in Russia’s capital Moscow on Jan. 14, where both parties agreed to continue negotiations without any preconditions. Turkish and Armenian envoys met for the second time in Vienna on Feb. 24.

An historic bilateral meeting also took place between the Turkish and Armenian foreign ministers on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkiye on March 12.

As part of the efforts, Turkiye and Armenia have also resumed commercial flights as of Feb. 2 after a two-year hiatus.

The two countries have been divided on a range of issues, including the 1915 events in the Ottoman Empire and Armenia’s occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh in 1993, since when the land border between Turkiye and Armenia has been closed.

On Oct. 10, 2009, the neighboring countries signed a peace accord known as the Zurich Protocols to establish diplomatic relations and open the border but failed to ratify the agreement in their respective national parliaments.

Relations between Ankara and Yerevan entered a new phase in the fall of 2020 with the end of the second Nagorno-Karabakh war, which lasted 44 days in which Turkiye helped Azerbaijan recapture its territory.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz