Author: Markos Nalchajian

Authorities probe suspected vote buying in 2012 and 2017 parliamentary elections

Markos Nalchajian

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 16:26,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. Authorities have launched criminal proceedings on vote buying, bribery, electoral violations and other alleged offenses concerning the opposition Prosperous Armenia (BHK) party.

According to the State Revenue Committee’s investigators, they’ve gathered sufficient evidence to believe that several employees of the Ararat Cement, the cement producing factory in the eponymous town, were forced to sign up and join to the Prosperous Armenia Party and were told to secure votes for the party during the 2012 and 2017 parliamentary elections or potentially be fired from their jobs. According to authorities the employees carried out the instructions and even compiled a list containing the names of the people who have agreed to vote for the BHK.

In addition, authorities said some employees of the factory bribed or offered other advantage to a number of residents of Ararat province in exchange of voting for BHK.

Criminal cases on multiple articles are initiated.

Authorities did not name any suspects.

The criminal cases have been forwarded to the General Prosecution for further proceedings.

Ararat Cement and the BHK are yet to comment on the allegations. 

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Turkish press: Naming the ‘Untitled’: The concept art of Sarkis

Markos Nalchajian
 ISTANBUL REVIEWS 
SEP 14, 2020 11:10 AM GMT+3
An exhibition view

In his ninth decade, Sarkis is still on fire. Born of the ashes that provoke nostalgia among his multigenerational kith of old Istanbul, he is, excuse the cliches, a living legend of Duchamp-like grandmaster status, particularly among art world aficionados. For his most recent opening at Dirimart on Sept. 10, titled “Untitled,” he zoomed in for a call with fellow culturati from Paris, delighting collegial curators, publishers and intellectual comrades of all stripes from that city of luminaries where he has lived and belonged to since the 1960s.

Digital patchworks of scannable QR codes are placed at each end of the expansive main gallery floor inside Dirimart, a decidedly commercial outfit earnestly affirming Turkey as integral to the critical establishment of art and the development of its international canon. Situated amid the bustling din of the Dolapdere quarter in Beyoğlu district, the socioeconomic diversity of the overburdened, urban environment contrasts with unequivocal contemporary visions of newly curated art alongside the inner-city freeway’s growing cultural ecology, shared with Evliyagil, Arter and Pilevneli galleries.

A work by Sarkis at “Untitled.” (Courtesy of Dirimart)

Not weighed by history, as the local communities appear to be, so many low-income migrants and minorities who endure various manual labor in the surrounding neighborhoods, Sarkis places an everlasting, however virtual, flame within the palms of his venturesome seers. To forego the risks of an ongoing global pandemic that has claimed nearly a million lives and to bear witness to the life of objects and experience firsthand with its spatial dimension, a person essentially takes their life in their hands.

But as the trickster that he is, Sarkis turned assumptions around and has, in place of a purely palpable and immediate course of sense perception, reproduced computer simulation, only site-specifically, as an image beheld within an image, perhaps analogous to the idea of a dream within a dream.

As a concept artist whose primary medium could be said to be that of the installation, Sarkis has made a career out of producing work that defies much of the material objectification that would circumscribe originality and creativity into an intellectualized commodity that while valued abstractly, is still arguably dependent on the industrial complex for its existence. His art perpetuates the postmodern focus on the greater contexts in which works are shown, be it in a gallery, museum, city, community, nation, aesthetic or theoretical movement.

The Persian rug in the front of an original painting by Sarkis, which is enlarged as a video, at Dirimart Gallery, Istanbul. (Courtesy of Dirimart)

A sign for our times

Two of the broadest walls within the interior of Dirimart face each other with blood-red inflammations of visual lore, which Sarkis collected over the years behind the uncanny lens of his distinctive photography. Shot through with beams of light, the past rears its ugly head, blazing like an inferno of the archetypal subconscious, replete with a surrealistic menagerie of skulls adorned with 18th-century wigs and Lakota headdresses, prehistoric goddess statues, German words, African ceremonialists, street life and varieties of architectural perspective.

At the very end of the crimson-suffused smorgasbord of images, a band of neon tubes electrifies the air with a shock of rainbow hues. It is to symbolize the future that awaits, like the mythical pot of gold, before all goes white, and the mystery of the unknown that awaits emerges as a blank slate of unconsciousness. But these pictures are broken, and there are ample glowing forms of the crucifix throughout the show. Only it is not by way of occidental history that Sarkis approaches his subjects.

Inspired by the peculiar craft of cracked pottery in Japan, known as kintsugi, Sarkis did not merely appropriate exotic knowledge like any kleptomaniac Orientalist but instead fused, both conceptually and physically, the Japanese technique with his special adaptation of stained-glass. The result expresses a powerful, and lucid continuity between his materials and the histories and ideas that he has sought to convey with them. Across from the temporal, collagist mural are individuated works of fissured photographic panes.

One of these pieces portrays a man walking through the rubble of Istanbul in the bitter wake of two days, known as the September events of 1955. And beside him, hanging on the adjacent surface is a pictorial arrangement inspired by the tragedies after a painting by the late Turkish artist Aliye Berger, often sharing her reputation with Fahrelnissa Zeid, her sister. Although Berger was middle-aged when she made the piece, it is a bleary-eyed smog of confusion, something primal, child-like or enraged.

A stained glass work by Sarkis at the exhibition at Dirimart Gallery, Istanbul. (Courtesy of Dirimart)

Intermission for the avant-garde

To break up such concerns as that which Sarkis addressed as a public figure and progressive freethinker in his own right, the curation of “Untitled” draped a Persian rug over Dirimart’s gallery floor in the front of an original painting by Sarkis, which he also enlarged as a video work. The eye-shaped smear of orange and white looks over the complex weave with Farsi calligraphy from the “Book of Kings,” which inspired Morton Feldman to notate music, “Spring of Chosroes” (1976), based on its patterns. It resonates with the ideas of Sarkis.

The original Berger painting, titled “Fire” (1955), has been compared to the inimitable 1893 canvas “The Scream” by Edvard Munch for its bewildering coloration. On loan from the personal collection of Sarkis, the mystifying frame of emotional outpouring hangs around the corner in a smaller, contiguous room at Dirimart, where the more intrepid art lovers of the season may wear gloves and handle limited edition publications by Norgunk, a literary cohort of Sarkis and other freethinking artists and writers based in Istanbul.

Among the volumes in reference is one called, “The Treasure Chests of Mnemosyne,” which Sarks edited with art historian Uwe Fleckner, piecing together texts by Plato, Frierrich Nietzsche, Marcel Proust and Jacques Derrida where the cerebral heavyweights have hypothesized on the nature of memory. Mnemosyne, of course, is the Greek goddess of memory, celebrated as the mother of muses. And although the work of Sarkis has practically fallen off the edge of modernity because he is so utterly contemporary, “Untitled” contextualizes his oeuvre more reflexively.

Smack dab in the center of the exhibition is a burned wooden crate. It is a revision of an earlier work that he last showed in 1992, when a Turkish art critic insulted him outright, personally, professionally and intolerably, targeting his identity. Sarkis did not respond in words but by creating art. The neon evocation of his birth year, 1938, with an added 0, made for a bold statement, in which the artist exclaimed his immortality. While the indecorous railing of the art critic is long lost to the paper mill, in the year 19380, Sarkis will live on, on fire, red with life.

COVID-19: Armenian CDC reports 107 new cases

Markos Nalchajian

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 11:10,

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 14, ARMENPRESS. 107 new cases of COVID-19 were registered in the past 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total number of confirmed cases to 45969, the Armenian Center For Disease Control reported. 34 patients recovered, raising the number of total recoveries to 41693.

2631 tests were conducted over the past 24 hours.

3 people died from COVID-19, increasing the death toll to 919. This number doesn’t include the deaths of 282 other people infected with the virus who died from other pre-existing conditions, according to health authorities.

As of 11:00, September 14 the number of active cases stood at 3075.

Reporting by Lilit Demuryan; Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

Azerbaijani press: Armenia turning Caucasus into second Middle East

Markos Nalchajian
ARMENIA7 September 2020 17:43 (UTC+04:00)

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept.7

By Azer Ahmadbayli – Trend:

After the collapse of the USSR, maintaining influence in the post-Soviet space has always been considered one of the main priorities of the Russian Federation.

The plans to destroy Russia as the largest and richest (in terms of natural resources) state in the world, according to Moscow, have not disappeared, and the post-Soviet republics are a kind of the last geographic (geopolitical) frontier protecting Russia from a potentially hostile space (NATO). Therefore, stability in the former Soviet republics bordering on Russia is an important condition for ensuring the security of Russia itself, and one of the tasks of its foreign policy.

Recently, new circumstances have emerged that may pose a potential threat to stability of not only the South Caucasus, but also Russia. Planes flying from Beirut with Lebanese Armenians on board arrived in Yerevan. According to the regional media outlets, their settlement in Nagorno Karabakh has begun.

Judging by the way the plotters of the Armenian far-fetched moves are accustomed to act, at the initial stage everything looks rather harmless – as a purely humanitarian action and care for compatriots.

However, coupled with plans to build roads and infrastructure, as well as residential settlements directly in the occupied territories (especially, Gubadli, Zangilan and Kalbajar districts of Azerbaijan), satellite images of which were recently provided by Azercosmos, it becomes obvious that the settlement of Armenians there is a deliberately planned powerful irritant factor for Azerbaijan.

Why is all this being done?

The background is not immediately apparent. The main goal is not only the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, which the Armenians finally decided not to return, but Russia. Such conclusion can be explained.

In Lebanon, which, by the way, is often called the Middle Eastern Switzerland, an Armenian community of about 160,000 people has lived (and does not live in poverty) in a warm Mediterranean climate for more than a century. The Armenian deputies of the Lebanese parliament and the Armenian ministers of the Lebanese government are some kind of indicator of the Armenian community’s authority in this Arab country.

The terrible explosion in Lebanon’s capital Beirut, according to the Armenian media outlets, left 13 Armenians killed and 300 wounded. But, this doesn’t look like a reason to promptly leave one’s habitual place. Nobody, except for the Armenians, began to leave Lebanon, especially since the aid was being provided, and the EU, on behalf of France and Germany, guaranteed the provision of significant financial support to the Lebanese government.

While the rate of migration of the population from Armenia itself remains consistently high, the resettlement of the Lebanese Armenians looks more than strange. It’s very difficult to believe in the sincerity of even the poorest sober-minded Lebanese Armenian, who decided to snap and move to a completely devastated foreign territory, where bullets are flying, and which he will sooner or later lose.

The change in climate, lifestyle, field of activity (Lebanese Armenians are mostly not farmers) hardly counts as the search for a better life, as it was during the development of America.

What is it then?

Yes, changing the demographic balance in Nagorno Karabakh or the arrival there under the guise of migrants of Armenian militants from Lebanon (and other Middle Eastern countries) to conduct hostilities, as many analysts write, are also the goal of the Armenians, but these are tactical goals.

The resettlement of Lebanese (and before that Syrian) Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh means the emergence of an alien Middle Eastern element in the South Caucasus and the transfer of Middle Eastern ties, including terrorist ones, to the post-Soviet space.

Armenia has been tasked to turn the Caucasus into a second Middle East. The strategic goal is the destabilization and collapse of Russia.

The absence of an immediate response from the international community to the settlement of the occupied Azerbaijani territories, which is a direct violation of international laws, gives one more reason to assume that this is not a spontaneous process, and that there is a powerful force behind it, which gave the command not to take serious actions against Armenia.

The calculation is unmistakable: Azerbaijan will not silently observe the illegal settlement of its historically and legally recognized territories, and sooner or later will sharp reaction to the actions of Armenia, using its right to liberate the occupied territories. This will be the beginning of a series of tragic events and, as a result, complete destabilization of the situation in the South Caucasus. Further, it’s quite likely that the fire of the war will also affect the Russian North Caucasus.

A big war on the borders of Russia or already on its border territories is what the West needs. At the same time, the goal will be achieved to put Russia and Turkey on opposite sides of the barricades, since their cooperation is the Achilles’ heel of the West.

Russia is a large and strong country, and large and strong countries do not immediately feel the potential danger, relying on inertia on a sense of self-confidence. But sometimes it happens that even a huge bear, having received a small wound, eventually dies from blood poisoning.

The conflict in Nagorno Karabakh was the first destructive impetus to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Now a similar scenario may be realized once again. Armenia is fulfilling a new order of overseas patrons – to kindle the fire of a big war in the Caucasus region.

One can ask: what is the benefit of this for Armenia?

The Armenians are sure, or rather, they were convinced that after the collapse of Russia, they will be helped to change again the borders in the region and finally become “Great Armenia”.

The California Courier Online, August 27, 2020

Markos Nalchajian

1 –        Turkey’s Leaders Furious at Biden
            For his Attack on Pres. Erdogan
            By Harut Sassounian
            Publisher, The California Courier
            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2-         Michigan’s Mari Manoogian Represents Armenian Americans in
DNC Keynote
3 –        Armenians Again Warned Against Coronavirus Complacency
            Parents, Public Question Decision to Reopen Schools
4-         Letters to the Editor
5-         Remembering a Life Lost in the Beirut Explosion:
            Delia Guedikian Papazian

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1 –        Turkey’s Leaders Furious at Biden
            For his Attack on Pres. Erdogan
            By Harut Sassounian
            Publisher, The California Courier
            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden was interviewed by The New
York Times editorial board on December 16, 2019. In his interview,
Biden called Turkish President Erdogan “an autocrat,” urged his
“isolation” and sought his “defeat” in the next elections.

Even though the interview took place eight months ago and was
published by The New York Times on January 17, 2020, the Turkish
government and media showed no reaction at the time. A week ago,
several months after the interview became public, a series of
orchestrated hysterical attacks were launched in Turkey on Biden’s
comments to The New York Times.

Let’s start with what Biden told The New York Times last December:

“I’ve spent a lot of time with him [Pres. Erdogan of Turkey]. He is an
autocrat. He’s the president of Turkey and a lot more. What I think we
should be doing is taking a very different approach to him now, making
it clear that we support opposition leadership. Making it clear that
we are in a position where we have a way which was working for a while
to integrate the Kurdish population who wanted to participate in the
process in their parliament, etc. Because we have to speak out about
what we in fact think is wrong. He has to pay a price. He has to pay a
price for whether or not we’re going to continue to sell certain
weapons to him. In fact, if he has the [Russian] air defense system
that they’re flying F-15s through to see how they can try to figure
out how to do it.”

Biden went on: “So I’m very concerned about it. I’m very concerned
about it. But I’m still of the view that if we were to engage more
directly like I was doing with them, that we can support those
elements of the Turkish leadership that still exist and get more from
them and embolden them to be able to take on and defeat Erdogan. Not
by a coup, not by a coup, but by the electoral process. He got blown
out. He got blown out in Istanbul [during the mayoral elections]. He
got blown out in his party. So what do we do now? We just sit there,
and yielded. And the last thing I would’ve done is yielded to him with
regard to the Kurds. The absolute last thing!”

Biden concluded: “I had a couple of those meetings with him about the
Kurds, and they did not clamp down at the time. We have to make it
clear that if they’re looking to, because, at the end of the day,
Turkey doesn’t want to have to rely on Russia. They’ve had a bite out
of that apple a long time ago. But they got to understand that we’re
not going to continue to play with them the way we have. So I am very
concerned. I am very concerned. I’m very concerned about our airfields
[in Turkey] and access to them as well. And I think it takes an awful
lot of work for us to be able to get together with our allies in the
region and deal with how we isolate his actions in the region,
particularly in the Eastern Mediterranean in relating to oil and a
whole range of other things which take too long to go into. But the
answer is yes, I’m worried.”

On August 16, 2020, in response to Biden’s above comments, the
Jerusalem Post reported that Turkish presidential adviser Ibrahim
Kalin slammed Biden, accusing him of ignorance, arrogance and
hypocrisy. “The days of ordering Turkey around are over,” he tweeted.
“But if you still think you can, be our guest. You will pay the
price.”

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also attacked Biden after meeting US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, calling the Democratic Presidential
nominee ignorant. Speaking about Biden’s comments, Cavusoglu said:
“It’s weird that someone this disinformed [sic] wants to run the
country.”

It is understandable that Turkish leaders would be upset at Biden for
talking about removing the Turkish President from office. Furthermore,
given Erdogan’s chummy relationship with Pres. Trump, it is also
understandable that Turkish leaders would not want to see Trump
replaced by Biden. A few days ago, Trump told Fox News that Erdogan
listens to him. In fact, it is the other way around. Trump is the one
who listens to Erdogan and does his bidding.

Nevertheless, there are deeper reasons for Turkish leaders to whip
their public into frenzy against Biden. Erdogan is engaging in his
favorite political trick of distracting his people’s attention away
from their economic and social deprivations by blaming the foreigner,
Biden. Erdogan is also relying on the long-standing Turkish hostility
to Western Europe, the United States and Christianity. Erdogan is used
to whipping the emotions of his uneducated followers to stand by him,
regardless of his poor performance. Instead, Erdogan has conveniently
pivoted towards Russia and China, despite his country’s NATO
membership.

Should Biden win in the Presidential elections, it remains to be seen
whether he would maintain his hard line approach to Erdogan and
Turkey.

************************************************************************************************************************************************

2-         Michigan’s Mari Manoogian Represents Armenian Americans in
DNC Keynote

By Beth LeBlanc

(The Detroit News)–For Rep. Mari Manoogian, her Tuesday, August 18
keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention is about more
than the politics of a presidential race, though it will be an
important tenet of her comments.

The 27-year-old Birmingham resident said she also hopes her presence
will inspire other Armenian American women and said it will be an
“honor and privilege” to represent them on a national scale.

Manoogian said she hopes her message and those of 16 other “rising
stars” with whom she’ll be speaking “show that there is diverse,
vibrant leadership in this new generation of public servants.”

“To have this opportunity for my people is very important,” the
first-term lawmaker said.

Manoogian’s comments will touch on “dinner table” issues such as jobs
and health care, she said. In particular, Manoogian plans to note Vice
President Joe Biden’s role in the bailout of Detroit auto companies in
2009.

She also plans to detail the important role of local businesses during
the pandemic, “showing bold leadership in times of crisis.”

“Our message is really about being an inclusive party, sort of
touching on the issues that are important to all Americans but
uplifting this next generation of leadership,” Manoogian said.

Manoogian will face off against Republican Kendra Cleary in November
in a fight to maintain her seat in the 40th House District. In 2018,
she defeated Republican David Wolkinson 56.5% to 43.5% in a
traditional GOP district.

As of July 24, Manoogian had about $108,000 on hand while Cleary had
just short of $5,000.

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3 –        Armenians Again Warned Against Coronavirus Complacency

            Parents, Public Question Decision to Reopen Schools

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday, August 20 again urged
Armenians to strictly follow anti-epidemic rules amid what he
described as relative stability in the rate of coronavirus infection
in the country.

As of Monday, August 24, Armenia has recorded a total of 42,825
COVID-19 cases. A total of 36,049 of these patients have since
recovered while 5,922 remain active. The death toll as a direct result
of complications from COVID-19 stands at 854.

Health Minister Arsen Torosyan said at a government session that the
downward trend in the number of new coronavirus cases in Armenia has
come to a stop, adding that sharper declines are hardly expected while
the situation remains stable.

“Taking into account the economic activity and the mobility of the
population in general, including the number of citizens returning to
Armenia, I think it will be very difficult to have fewer cases than we
identify daily if the situation I have described is maintained,”
Torosyan said.

During the past several weeks Armenia’s Health Ministry has reported
between 150 and 300 new coronavirus cases and between one and eight
Covid-19 deaths a day. This is two to three times lower than at what
appeared to the peak of the epidemic in the first half of July when
more than 700 new coronavirus cases and about 15 deaths were recorded
on a daily basis.

Pashinyan stressed that the current stability is relative and a
reversal of the situation may happen at any moment. Pashinyan warned
the public against complacency based on the observed decrease in the
number of new coronavirus cases.

“The average daily numbers today are more than twice lower than in
July. But if we do not respond to the situation properly, we will
quickly return to the situation observed in July,” he said.

A total of 1,993 coronavirus tests were conducted in Armenia on August
19; 263 citizens were diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. According
to the health minister, currently hospitals in Armenia are not
overloaded and the coronavirus situation remains manageable.

“No citizen will be left without medical assistance, but citizens must
make an effort not to get infected,” Pashinyan said.

The Armenian prime minister urged the police to step up their efforts
in enforcing mandated mask-wearing in all public spaces and also
appealed to the public to show more individual responsibility to stem
the spread of infection.

Parents and education experts in Armenia are questioning the wisdom of
the latest decision of the government to last week to reopen schools
in September with a number of coronavirus-related safety measures put
in place to avoid major outbreaks of the disease.

Shushan Doydoyan, a mother of four school-age children, considers the
re-opening of schools with restrictions imposed by the Ministry of
Education ineffective.

In all schools re-opening on September 15 students will have to wear
face masks during classes, schools will have to provide disinfectants,
and classrooms will need to be disinfected every day before and after
classes. Instead of five days, lessons will be held six days a week to
reduce class hours. There will be a maximum of 20 students in
classrooms and classes will be held in two shifts. Less time spent by
children at schools will also help keep school canteens closed,
authorities say.

“A decision that is detached from the needs of the public has been
made. No one has asked the opinion of parents or teachers. The public
has not been involved in the making of these decisions at all,”
Doydoyan complained.

She believes that proper control over the safety measures at schools
is impossible. “In any case, they are children. Without parental
supervision and with one teacher for more than 10 children, it is
simply impossible to properly monitor how correctly and safely they
wear masks, because a mask protects only if worn correctly and safely.
If you constantly touch it with dirty hands, if you drop it on the
floor and then put it back on your face, it is fraught with
unpredictable health problems,” Doydoyan said.

Samvel Martirosian, a teacher at the Aregnazan educational complex
attended by about 400 students, expects “chaos” to reign in schools
after September 15.

“The educational process will be very difficult for teachers
considering that they will have to go to work also on Saturdays. There
is a big question about whether it is a wise decision. I believe that
in a month or two teachers will simply start running out of steam. I
think that the situation will descend into chaos unless mistakes are
addressed and new solutions are found along the way,” Martirosian
said.

Education specialist Serob Khachatrian believes that the introduction
of a six-day school week increases the risks for those students and
parents who use public transport. He suggests that schools be reopened
for only students in grades 1-6, while students of higher grades
should continue to study online.

“If the duration of the lesson is shortened, say, to 25-30 minutes,
then in this case the question will again arise: which is better – to
go to school for a 25-minute lesson or conduct a 45-minute lesson
remotely?” he said.

The specialist also thinks that intervals between lessons should be
made at different times for different classrooms so that children
could leave classrooms. “A lot of aggression may accumulate in
children if they are kept in classrooms during class breaks,”
Khachatrian said.

Pediatrician Mari Darakchian said that children attending schools
should have their body temperature measured properly, schools must
have a certain supply of masks and teachers must have special training
to work with children in such conditions.

“If correct psychological work is carried out with children, they will
wear masks with great pleasure. In the lower grades it can be done
through play, for older children, of course, it should be done through
explanatory work,” Darakchian said.

The current state of emergency ends Sept. 11. The government has
indicated that it will not seek its extension unless the coronavirus
situation worsens.

**********************************************************************************************************************************************

4-         Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Regarding the article ‘Sarkisov offers compensation to Azerbaijani
businessmen’ (August 6, 2020).

Mr. Sarkisov, the Russian Armenian businessman, had invited the
Armenian and Azerbaijani community leaders in Moscow and said that “he
felt very ashamed before his Azeri friends for the Armenian vandals
who showed their national identity through violence and destruction,”
and offered compensation to Azerbaijani businesses in Moscow.

Mr. Sarkisov has the money and he can do whatever he wishes. But what
distresses me and others is that the Azerbaijanis started the
conundrum in Moscow, graffiti and vandalism in the United States and
other places. The Azerbaijanis also started the clashes at Armenia’s
border; they lost in Moscow and Armenia. Now they are shedding tears
and blaming us. If the Azerbaijanis hadn’t started, including beating
an innocent Armenian woman with a child walking in Moscow, none of
this would have happened.

I wish that Mr. Sarkisov, besides offering carrots, had also offered
sticks. Unfortunately, Azerbaijanis behave only when they see the
stick. In addition, in the article I didn’t read that the Azerbaijanis
apologized or offered compensation to Armenian businesses as Mr.
Sarkisov had hoped and wished.

Therefore, my second suggestion is that Mr. Sarkisov first compensate
the Armenian businesses that suffered through no fault of theirs, and
then compensate the Azeri businesses.

Bedros H. Kojian

Orange, Calif.

************************************************************************************************************************************************

5-         Remembering a Life Lost in the Beirut Explosion:

            Delia Guedikian Papazian

            By Natacha Larnaud

Delia Guedikian Papazian, 44, lived on the ninth floor of a building
facing the port. The night of the blast, she was in the living room
with her 15-year-old daughter, 8-year-old son, and her daughter’s best
friend, according to her sister-in-law, Suzanne Habchi Guedikian.

The friend of Delia’s daughter, in a Facebook post, wrote about what
happened when the explosion hit: “Her mom Delia was trying to get us
away from the glass and the windows but unfortunately while she was
trying to get to safety with us, the (whole) house exploded. It was
too late… Everything happened in front of our eyes as we were
screaming our lungs out for Delia. But there was no answer.”

In a panic and fearing the building would collapse, they ran from the
building for help, barefoot in the glass. “The little boy holding my
hand was so lost and afraid. I had never seen such a look on his face.
His cheeks had become so red, and the look in his eyes fractured my
heart into thousands of pieces,” she wrote.

Later that evening, Delia’s brother, rushed to the apartment to find
his sister. Habchi Guedikian said he could hear screaming from all
corners of the building. “We were hoping she was only injured. But it
wasn’t the case,” Habchi Guedikian said. “He called me immediately.
She wasn’t moving and her eyes were closed. Delia had already left us
when her brother arrived.”

Habchi Guedikian called Delia the “most loving, humble, compassionate
person,” and “one of the purest and most beautiful souls one could
ever meet.”

She said Delia was torn between staying and leaving Lebanon, hoping
for a better future for her family. Delia’s children are staying with
relatives for the time being. “My husband and I will always look after
them as if they were our own,” she added.

“Our hearts are shattered into pieces. Our lives will never be the
same again. Beirut will never be the same again. We hope that the loss
we have suffered will inspire us to pick up the pieces and build a
better future for our children.”

This article appeared in CBS News on August 18, 2020

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California Courier Online provides viewers of the Armenian News News Service
with a few of the articles in this week’s issue of The California
Courier.  Letters to the editor are encouraged through our e-mail
address, . However, authors are
requested to provide their names, addresses, and/or telephone numbers
to verify identity, if any question arises. California Courier
subscribers are requested not to use this service to change, or modify
mailing addresses. Those changes can be made through our e-mail,
, or by phone, (818) 409-0949.

U.S. provides additional assistance to Armenia to respond to COVID-19

Markos Nalchajian

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 11:50, 24 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 24, ARMENPRESS. The United States Government has committed an additional $1.43 million through the U.S. State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to address the impact of COVID-19 in Armenia, the USAID Armenia Mission told Armenpress.

In total, the U.S. Government has committed over $4 million in emergency assistance to Armenia in FY20. The United States is providing life-saving support by coordinating with the Government of Armenia, international humanitarian partners, and other stakeholders to identify priority areas for investment.

$1 million in new USAID assistance will support the agriculture and tourism sectors to recover economically from the pandemic, and adapt its needs to the post-COVID world.

$436,000 in additional State Department funding will provide shelter, food, and access to medical and social services for vulnerable migrants unable to return home due to the pandemic.

In addition to the aforementioned COVID-19 assistance, the United States has invested more than $1.57 billion in total assistance to Armenia over the past 20 years, including nearly $106 million for health.

No new case of COVID-19 confirmed in Artsakh in past 24 hours

Markos Nalchajian

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 11:53, 26 August, 2020

YEREVAN, AUGUST 26, ARMENPRESS. No new case of the novel coronavirus has been confirmed in the Republic of Artsakh in the past 24 hours, the ministry of healthcare said.

So far, the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Artsakh is 271, with 252 recoveries.

The number of active cases stands at 17.

35 citizens are currently quarantined.

No death case has been registered.

Two death cases have been registered, when the patients had a coronavirus but died from other disease. 

Reporting by Norayr Shoghikyan; Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan

Experts skeptical about Turkey’s latest gas discovery

Markos Nalchajian 
Arab News
By Menekse Tokyay
ANKARA: As Turkey recently announced a major natural gas discovery in
the Black Sea on Friday, how this will translate into reality is being
widely discussed.
According to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the discovery of 320
billion cubic meters (11.3 trillion cubic feet) of natural gas in
Turkey’s exclusive economic zone will reduce the country’s dependence
on foreign energy supplies, especially from Russia, Azerbaijan and
Iran — a factor that constantly increases the country’s current
account deficit.
Last year, Turkey’s energy imports cost the country $41 billion, while
it consumed 45 billion cubic meters of gas in the same period.
Mehmet Ogutcu, head of the Bosphorus Energy Club and a former
diplomat, told Arab News that a “98 percent import dependency and $12
billion annual gas import bill creates a challenge to Turkey’s economy
and national security.”
The country is also conducting exploratory drilling for oil and gas in
the eastern Mediterranean, that could hold about 122 trillion cubic
feet of gas by some estimates, but these moves have enraged regional
actors over maritime rights and further strained Turkey-EU relations.
Turkey plans to extract and make this gas available by 2023 — when the
country will hold its parliamentary and presidential elections.
But, some experts have voiced their suspicions over this goal, and
whether this reserve is likely to meet Turkey’s energy needs, claiming
that the initial production process will require six years at minimum.
Some commentators also doubt the plan’s viability, as several members
of the government have made similar announcements in the last two
decades.
According to Ogutcu, the reserve estimate needs to be independently verified.
“The 2023 goal seems to be too optimistic as the Black Sea has tough
geological and climate conditions for exploration and production.
Plus, the average period from discovery to market is around 7-8 years
in the gas industry,” he said.
Getting gas to the public is also believed to require additional
financial resources reaching to billions of dollars in infrastructure.
Ogutcu thinks that investor appetite is currently low, over the gas
glut in international markets, low demand and correlating prices.
Another point of contention is that the plan could shorten the terms
of Turkey’s contracts with Iran and Russia for energy supplies that
will end in 2023 and 2026 respectively.
Aydin Sezer, an expert on geopolitics and energy, said it was not
technically possible to announce a reserve through a single drilling.
 The country’s drilling ship Fatih began work on July 20. Sezer
believes it ought to take four to six months to be technically
suitable.
“The site of the discovery in the western Black Sea — now renamed the
Sakarya Gas Field — expands 250 square kilometers, and at least 8 to
10 drillings should have been conducted in this area in order to
announce a realistic amount of reserves. The real reserves can be
determined in two years at least and could be extracted in 7 to 10
years,” Sezer told Arab News, adding that the announced reserves could
not be taken as commercially viable at this point.
According to Sezer, the reserves cannot be extracted completely, and
even if they were would only meet the country’s energy needs for six
years.
On the other hand, as the gas found is 3,500 meters deep, reaching and
extracting natural gas beyond 500 meters will require US companies
that are specialized in deep water extraction technology.
Madalina Vicari, an independent expert on energy geopolitics, thinks
the gas discovery is important for the country’s energy security, but
not a game changer in the sense of covering Turkey’s gas import needs.
“The discovery is in ultra-deep waters, and ultra-deep water drillings
bear significant challenges, technical and economic alike, as they
require special engineering projects, and intensive capital
investments,” she told Arab News.
In this regard, for Vicari, it is yet to be seen how much gas is
recoverable, and when exactly the gas will flow into the Turkish
market.
“Given the challenges of the project, it would likely take at least a
few years until the gas reaches consumers. The 2023 timeline is overly
optimistic. It remains to be seen to what extent the Sakarya field
will reduce Turkey’s gas imports,” she said.
Vicari also thinks that Turkey’s energy contracts with Russia may turn
into shorter term contracts along with significant price bargains,
while the new gas discovery is also a challenge for the Turkstream
pipeline.
“And Russia, in order to not have at least one of Turkstream’s lines
idle, might offer significant price concessions,” she added.