The California
Courier Online, October 26, 2023
1- Pashinyan
Boasts About Armenia’s Fake
Democracy
at European Parliament
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Armenia and France Sign Military Agreement
3- Two rare
oral histories converge in Dr. Gil Harootunian’s newest publication
4- Armenian
Literarian, Translator
Yervant Kotchounian
Passes Away
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1- Pashinyan
Boasts About Armenia’s Fake
Democracy
at European Parliament
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
Regardless of whether I like Armenia’s Prime Minister or not, I
want to be fair to him. I praise him when he does something right and criticize
him when he does something wrong.
For example, I wrote an article in April 2019 praising Nikol
Pashinyan for his speech at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE) in Strasbourg, France. Here is what I wrote:
“Pashinyan gave an impressive speech to the representatives of 47 European
countries. Even more impressive were the Prime Minister’s answers to their
dozen questions. While his speech was prepared in advance, the questions were
impromptu and the answers had to be delivered on the spot.”
Pashinyan posted my article on his Facebook page which has
over one million followers. Here is the comment he added: “I am happy that one
of the most prestigious Diaspora newspapers, The California Courier, has
appreciated my speech at PACE.” My article received 4,000 Likes, 197 Shares and
185 comments.
I will now comment on Pashinyan’s speech at the European
Parliament on October 17, 2023, in Strasbourg,
France.
In his speech, Pashinyan used the word ‘democracy’ or
‘democratic’ 21 times to describe Armenia’s current government. He
emphasized that democracy provides “security, peace, unity, well-being and
happiness?” Regrettably, Armenia
does not enjoy any of these attributes, since Artsakh was lost and Azeri troops
have been stationed inside Armenia’s
borders since 2021. Armenia’s
problems are mostly due to the incompetence of its leader. Pashinyan came to
power under the guise of promoting democratic values, but ended up violating
the basic principles of democracy. What we have in Armenia now is one-man rule.
Pashinyan listens to no one, whether they are ministers, advisers, his party
members, the Parliamentary majority or the President. He makes all decisions by
himself. He claimed in his speech that Armenia “would have simply been
paralyzed, would have lost its independence and sovereignty if it were not
democratic.”
Pashinyan falsely said that his government “did not violate
any principle of democracy.” The fact is that Pashinyan has turned Armenia into a
police state. When he first came to power, he used to go to the Prime
Minister’s office on a bicycle. Now, he hides behind hundreds of policemen
before he puts one foot out the door. The policemen, who receive big salaries
and bonus payments, beat up and arrest demonstrators. Pashinyan’s political
opponents face trumped up charges in court. He has threatened to squash his
critics on the asphalt and slam them to the wall. Unbelievably, while
campaigning for the parliamentary elections in June 2021, he waved a hammer in
the air, threatening to smash the heads of his domestic opponents. Is that
democracy?
Even Diaspora Armenians are not immune from the long arm of
Pashinyan’s dictatorial regime. Anyone who criticizes him from outside Armenia is banned from entering the country
after arriving at the Yerevan
Airport. What happened to
the democratic principle of freedom of _expression_?
Pashinyan described Azerbaijan’s
May 12, 2021 attack on Armenia
as a “provocation that took place before the parliamentary elections… to fail
the upcoming parliamentary elections and paralyze the statehood of Armenia, or at
least its government.” The fact is that Azerbaijan’s
attack on Armenia
was unrelated to the Parliamentary elections. Such attacks have taken place
before and after the elections. Furthermore, Pres. Aliyev has no reason to
topple Pashinyan since he is making endless concessions to Azerbaijan on Artsakh and Armenia.
Pashinyan bragged in his speech that Armenia was
able to settle the 100,000 refugees from Artsakh. He claimed that thanks to
democracy in Armenia,
“We did it honorably.” The fact is that despite the persistent indications for
years that Azerbaijan
intended to occupy the remainder of Artsakh and force out its inhabitants, the
Armenian government made no preparations to settle the refugees in Armenia. Many
of them spent days in their cars, deprived of food, water and shelter. As a
result, several thousand Artsakhtsis have already left Armenia.
In his speech, Pashinyan explained his readiness to allow
Azeri cargo, vehicles, people, pipelines and electricity lines to traverse Armenia’s territory from Azerbaijan
proper to its exclave of Nakhichevan. Even though such access is supposed to be
reciprocal, as mentioned in the Nov. 9, 2020 agreement, Azerbaijan has never indicated its willingness
to allow similar transit for Armenians through Azerbaijan. The same disparity
applies to Pashinyan’s recognition of Azerbaijan’s
territory as 86,600 square kilometers, without Pres. Aliyev agreeing to
Pashinyan’s proposed size of Armenia’s
territory as 29,800 square kilometers. Pashinyan also conceded that the former
Azeri-inhabited enclaves within Armenia
belong to Azerbaijan,
without Pres. Aliyev accepting a reciprocal exchange.
Finally, Pashinyan repeated his offer to sign a peace treaty
with Azerbaijan by year-end
even though there is no necessity for such a treaty as Armenia and Azerbaijan had not declared war on
each other. The peace treaty will only serve as an opportunity for Azerbaijan to extract further concessions from Armenia.
Pashinyan concluded his 45-minute speech by repeating the
word ‘democracy’ two more times: “I am convinced that democracy can provide
peace, security, unity, prosperity and happiness. Let’s prove this together.
Long live democracy!”
The European Parliament members were extremely pleased with
Pashinyan’s remarks. Why shouldn’t they? Pashinyan is going along with the
interests of the West, Russia,
Azerbaijan and Turkey, which is the abandonment of Artsakh, to facilitate
the flow of Azerbaijan’s
natural gas (partly bought from Russia)
to Europe. Besides offering supportive words,
European Parliament members are not willing to do anything concrete for Armenia.
I am sure Pashinyan will not post this article on his
Facebook page.
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2- Armenia
and France
Sign Military Agreement
Armenia’s
Defense Minister Suren Papikyan and his French counterpart Sébastien Lecornu
signed a military cooperations agreement on Monday, October 23 in Paris, the
defense ministry reported. This is Armenia’s first such agreement with
a Western nation. Lecornu said that France
will provide Armenia
with three GM200 radar systems and Mistral short-range missiles. According to
officials, France will also
assist in reforms in Armenia’s
Armed Forces.
“France and its people are standing by our side, just like
during all difficult moments in the history of the Armenian people, and also
today with the complex military and political situation around Armenia,”
Papikyan said, adding that this gesture “deserves the highest appreciation, for
which I am grateful again.”
“Today’s agreement stipulates cooperation in modernization
of the defense capabilities of Armenia’s
Armed Forces, military education, personnel training, advisory support and a
number of other aspects that are a priority for our Armed Forces,” added
Papikyan.
The French Defense Ministry said in a statement that the
agreement will also allow Armenia
to better defend its sovereign borders. The agreement would also allow Armenia to purchase defensive weapons from France.
The “agreement that will allow Armenia to protect its skies,”
Lecornu said in an interview the day before the agreement was signed.
Lecornu clarified to a French Senate commission last week
that the weapons that are being considered for sale are only defensive and not
offensive and meant to assist Armenia
in defending lives and the security of its territory.
During a visit to Armenia earlier this month, French
Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna pledged military support after visiting
displaced Artsakh residents, including burn patients injured in a Stepanakert
fuel depot station explosion. “I would like to publicly state that France has agreed on future contracts with Armenia which will allow the delivery of
military equipment to Armenia
so that it can ensure its defense."
Colonna’s pledge of military support to Armenia angered Baku,
with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan
complaining to European Council President Charles Michel about what he called
the “anti-Azerbaijan” posturing by Paris and the EU.
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3- Two rare oral histories
converge in Dr. Gil Harootunian’s newest publication
By Victoria Atamian Waterman
(The Armenian Weekly)—Two oral histories are combined in one
collection. At Four O’clock in the Afternoon is the only existing firsthand
oral account of an adult female who survived both the 1895 Hamidian massacres
and the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Bones and Bodies, We Had To Walk Over Them is
the firsthand oral account of her nine-year-old daughter who survived the
Genocide. Both accounts were translated by Rose D. Guertin, Ph.D. and written
and edited by Gil Harootunian, Ph.D. This stunning collection is told in four
voices.
Dr. Harootunian’s voice provides the introduction to both
oral histories with thoroughly researched facts and a relevant overview that
shine a light on key points that may have been dimmed during the emotional
narration or translation in language. She states there are many reasons why
self-narrated histories were not written by women, including but not limited to
the lack of literacy skills and the community taboo that precludes females
discussing their sexual trauma.
Guleeg (Toomasian) Haroian narrates At Four O’clock In the
Afternoon, starting her story at the age of 10, when she witnessed the killing
of her father, the theft of their wealth and the burning of their house down to
ashes by the Turks. By 1913, she was married to Hagop Haroian, blessed with two
daughters and pregnant with a third, when he left for America with the
dream of saving money to bring his family a life of freedom. With dreams
shattered, she survived the 1915 Genocide through a forced marriage to a Muslim
and later reunited with her daughter.
Excerpt: “And soon the crier yelled for us to go. I jumped. I
knew that place so well! I ran. They had begun separating the pretty ones, the
brides, for rape, marriage and property. They were raping and beating them,
then driving them out…I escaped. I had a stick in my hand. I was in my
thirties; my eyes and face I had rubbed all black mud on, so the Turks wouldn’t
recognize me, and they wouldn’t see how young I was…From roof to roof, I
jumped.”
Eva (Haroian) Hightaian, Guleeg’s only surviving daughter
from “the old country,” narrates Bones and Bodies, We Had to Walk Over Them.
Eva’s oral history is significant, as she reveals the decision-making process
of a nine-year-old child experiencing the collections, the Death March and
forced transfer into a Muslim household. Eva also talks about her years with an
Arab adoptive mother and her reluctance to re-join her mother and the Armenian
community.
Excerpt: “After the Turkish government took all the
ammunition and everything they saw, they decided you still have more…The
soldiers took the women they found to the konagh. They tortured them. No woman
would talk about it, but you can imagine what they did to the women. …The
Turkish soldiers collected all the old men. They took them to a gorge, shot
them, and those old men fell right there…After that, the massacre time came…And
now the Turks claim they never did such a thing. But I saw it with my own eyes,
in my young days, my childhood, they did all those things…”
The afterword is written by Dr. Rebecca Jinks, Department of
History, Royal Holloway, University
of London, and a
respected authority of women’s experiences during the Armenian and Yezidi
genocides and humanitarian responses and representations in the aftermath. Her
article “‘Marks Hard to Erase”: The Troubled Reclamation of ‘Absorbed’ Armenian
Women, 1919-1927” was published in 2018 in the American Historical Review. Dr.
Jinks provides a comparative analysis to a phenomenon called “genocidal
absorption” that occurs when children are removed from the ethnic, religious
and national communities that they are born into, as part of the process of
group destruction. Dr. Jinks states that Guleeg and Eva’s experiences give us
real insight into different experiences of genocidal absorption during the
Armenian Genocide.
The book is just over 200 pages and flows smoothly for a
quick read. However, the words on those pages will stay with you long after as
you reflect on the unspeakable horror and remarkable resilience. Please note
trigger warnings of violence, sexual trauma and genocide.
This level of firsthand accounts is a rarity, and their
value cannot be understated.
It was not lost on me that this rare collection of Armenian
history was written by a family matriarchy of four generations of women. The
two oral histories consist of excerpts from recordings made beginning in 1976
with all four generations present. Had this not been a collaborative effort
among trusted family members, these stories would join others that will never
be told. This level of firsthand accounts is a rarity, and their value cannot
be understated.
This treasure could not have been written by anyone other
than Dr. Harootunian. We highly recommend this book for its rare and unique
firsthand points of view, especially for readers and researchers interested in
the lesser told stories from women that are written in English.
We also commend and thank Guleeg and Eva for their selfless
bravery, for opening deep wounds and for reliving their nightmares, and Rose
and Gil for pushing through their generational trauma to share this invaluable
treasure with the world.
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4- Armenian
Literarian, Translator
Yervant Kotchounian
Passes Away
Yervant Kotchounian was born on May 20, 1950, in Damascus, Syria.
He was the youngest son of Garabed and Tshkhoun (Vanes Kehian) Kotchounian. He
came to join his siblings Kalousd and Elmasd.
His mother passed away when Yervant was an infant. In 1958,
with the help of his brother Kalousd, Yervant and his sister Elmasd were
accepted into the Armenian Evangelical Secondary School of Anjar, Lebanon,
where they spent the next ten years.
In 1968, Yervant moved to the capital city of Beirut where he attended Haigazian College
for four years, graduating in 1972 with a degree in English literature. He
taught at Shamlian-Tatigian High School in Beirut
for two years after completing his degree. Yervant also hosted a radio program
called Armenian Hour, which aired in Beirut.
He also hosted another radio program that aired in Cyprus.
In 1974, he married Grace Varbedian and together they
immigrated to the United States
in 1975, where they settled in Los
Angeles and where their children—son Todd, and
daughter Tara—were born.
For many years, Yervant worked at Blue Cross in an
administrative capacity.
At his core, however, Yervant was a man of letters. He loved
words and ideas. In all languages. The best living examples of that are his
children and their names. Todd is “tahd”—cause, the permanent Armenian call for
justice. And his daughter is Tara—terra, land,
the resolution that justice would bring. This is how he was in all things: he
was true to himself, honest, and very very smart. Sometimes even practical.
His true passion was Armenian letters. He was a translator
who sought to preserve and extend the essence of Armenian for its rich and
expansive vocabulary while creating a bridge for Armenian writers to reach new
audiences. He was the translator and editor of a number of scholarly and
literary books. Some on commission; most out of love and curiosity. He had
translated a series of adventure novels because he wanted them available to
Armenian language readers. His writings appeared in all of the local Armenian
newspapers, and he was respected as a theater critic.
He served as a jurist for many years for the Hamazkayin
Tololyan Prize in Contemporary Literature, awarded to authors of various genres
in both English and Armenian whose themes centered around Armenian issues.
Yervant had a passion for music and was always quick to sing
or hum along. Especially if it was country music. He of course especially
appreciated classical and Armenian music, and was an avid supporter of the Lark
Conservatory, and the Dilijan Chamber Music Series.
He loved gathering with friends and family, sharing poetry
and telling stories — a smile never far, and his booming laugh often filling
the room.
In the past few months, he was in significant pain when he
agreed to enter the hospital. On Friday, September 29, he had been in good spirits,
laughing and talking. Later that night, he suffered a heart attack that greatly
deteriorated his overall condition. After two weeks of treatment in critical
care, Yervant died on Saturday, October 14, surrounded by loved ones.
He is lovingly remembered by: Former wife, Grace
Kotchounian; Son, Todd Kotchounian; Daughter, Tara Kotchounian; Brother,
Kalousd Kotchounian; Sister, Elmasd Kotchounian Miller; Niece, Nanor and Elie
Tashdjian and family; Niece, Houry and Zohrab Ghazarian and family; Niece, Hasmig
and Kevork Harboyan and family; Nephew, Garo and Katie Kotchounian and family;
Nephew, Greg and Katrina Miller and family; And the entire Kotchounian, Miller
and Varbedian families, relatives, friends and colleagues.
A celebration of life will be held on October 28 at 5 p.m.,
at Phoenicia Restaurant (343 N
Central Ave, Glendale).
In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that remembrances be made by
supporting Abril Bookstore, or by donating to an Armenian literary cause in
Yervant's name.
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