Author: nina hovnanian

THE MAGIC OF SOUTHERN ARMENIA

Wednesday, May 8th, 2013 | Posted by Matthew Karanian

The Tatev Monastery with the tramway in the background (photo by
Matthew Karanian)

BY MATTHEW KARANIAN

The Syunik Region of Armenia covers a vast expanse that stretches from
Spandarian Reservoir, near the town of Sisian, all the way south to
the Iran border.

Despite its grand size, there is usually no argument about which of
the cultural sites of Syunik is the grandest.

I posted the question on FaceBook a while back and the two words that
came back most frequently were “Tatev” and “obviously.”

Tatev is a monastery in southern Armenia that is located in a village
that is also named, conveniently enough, Tatev.

Until a few years ago Tatev the village was known, if it was known at
all, for the monastery. The monastery dates back to the ninth century
and was once home to more than 600 monks and, briefly, a university.

The site was destroyed by an earthquake in 1932 and restoration seems
to have been ongoing ever since.

The complex is comprised of a main cathedral, known as the church of
Sts. Poghos and Petros, as well as two additional chapels, a library,
and a maze of other buildings all surrounded by a fortress wall.

The most intriguing monument on the monastic grounds is a 25-foot
tall pillar with an engraved khatchkar (stone cross) at the top. This
uncommon structure, named Gavazan, which is the Armenian word for a
walking stick, was built in AD 904.

Tatev is one of the most cherished and admired architectural and
religious sites in Armenia.

But enough about the monastery. Today you’re apt to hear just as much
about a new aerial tramway that links this monastery to the main road.

The tram was built in 2010, some 1,100 years after the construction
of the monastery. The tram’s 3.5 mile span has earned it an entry
in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s longest. It’s
called the Wings of Tatev, which is both descriptive, and also an
allegorical reference to the origin of the name for the monastery.

According to legend, when the main church of the monastery was under
construction in AD 895 (give or take) a laborer slipped and fell into
the gorge. While falling, the man pleaded, without avail, for God to
grant him wings so that he could avoid death. He did this using the
Armenian words “ta tev.”

Whether the legend is true is anybody’s guess. My guess is that
it’s not.

But there’s no mistaking that Tatev is situated in a remote location,
atop a steep gorge. Geographic isolation is the norm for monasteries in
Armenia. The isolated location of Tatev and of many other religious
sites may have helped to keep the monks focused on their work,
free from worldly distractions. The remote siting also allowed these
monasteries to be defended from marauding invaders, of whom Armenia
has seen its share over the ages.

In the modern era, however, this geographic isolation serves mostly
as a deterrent to tourists who are contemplating how they can reach
a site, and still get back home, or to their hotel, in one day.

The aerial tramway at Tatev removes this deterrent. Passengers avoid
the rugged road completely. Visitors are instead whisked from main
highway to the monastery in 11 minutes. This is just one-quarter
the time it would take to maneuver the hairpin turns of the roadway
below-assuming that you are in a Jeep and that the road isn’t blocked
by rockfalls, or washed out, or covered with snow and ice.

And it’s a good two hours faster than the length of time it took me
to reach Tatev on my first trek there, in 1995, when the so-called
road was really just an improved trail.

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The rocks at Goris (photo by Matthew Karanian)

There’s still a deterrent to reaching Tatev, of course. You have to
be willing to ride high in the clouds above a mountain gorge in a
small booth that’s suspended only by cables. Long cables.

Three-and-a-half mile long cables. Some of us might just opt for the
treacherous drive.

No matter how you get to Tatev, there’s no denying that the aerial
tram has stirred interest in the site. The President of Armenia even
made a visit on the tram’s opening day, and was its first passenger.

Tatev is the southernmost destination in Armenia for just about every
tourist. Adventurists, however, think nothing of traveling farther
south to Shikahogh Reserve.

The one hundred square-kilometer Shikahogh Reserve is the only nature
reservation in Armenia with primeval forests. Casual hikers can easily
reach a grove of 2,000 year-old plane trees with trunk diameters that
exceed four meters.  This natural treasure is as esteemed in Armenia,
perhaps, as is Redwood National Park in California.

If you want to hike through the reservation you’ll need a permit, which
you can easily get free of charge from the reservation’s director,
at his office in the village of Shikahogh. When I obtained my hiking
pemit recently, I also hired a guide to show me around.

Even without a guide, and without a permit, there’s plenty of nature
to see in the public areas near the villages of Shikahogh, Nerkin Hand,
and Tsav.

If you’re traveling to Shikahogh, just go and don’t sweat the
details. The villages here are tiny (Nerkin Hand’s population is just
113), and everyone knows their neighbor, as well as how to get into
the Reservation. If you can pronounce Shikahogh, chances are good
that you’ll get pointed in the direction of the director’s cabin.

>From Shikahogh, there’s really no reason not to continue your journey
to Meghri, the Armenian outpost that sits along the Armenia-Iran
border.

Well, actually, there are probably a handful of reasons not to
continue.  Lodging options in Meghri are rudimentary. There’s a lot
of driving. And the climate tends to veer off in the directions of
hot and hotter.

But there’s no reason not to continue if you are an explorer. And
if you’re already hiking among ancient plane trees in the forests of
Shikahogh, then yes, you are an explorer.

Meghri, population 4,775, is the final Armenian town before reaching
Iran. The climate here is subtropical, and it is common to see
pomegranates and figs growing on trees along the roads. The greatest
historical site is a fortress that dates back to the tenth century.

The fort is famous for its role in the successful defense of Meghri
from a Turkish invasion in the eighteenth century. The defense was
led by the Armenian leader Davit Bek.

There’s also a trio of historic churches in town which date from the
fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, and which are destinations
for some Armenia pilgrims.

For me, however, the greatest thrill of Meghri was standing near
the bank of the Araks River, watching the steady flow of trucks
crossing the open frontier with Iran, and contemplating how Iran-a
fundamentalist Islamic Republic-has for so long enjoyed such a strong
bond of friendship with Armenia-the world’s oldest Christian nation. I
got the sense that the world is less black-and-white than I might
have imagined.

Logistics TATEV: The turnoff to Tatev is located 280 km south of
Yerevan, just north of Goris, along the west side of the road. The
tram operates daily except Monday, from 9 am to 6 pm. Roundtrip fare
for tourists is 3,000 drams (about $7.50). Envy the residents of
Tatev and of the surrounding towns who are allowed to ride free.

SHIKAHOGH: Get a permit from the director of the reserve, in the
village of Shikahogh. Hire a guide (optional) or hike independently.

MEGHRI: Travel time from Goris, in good weather, is about four hours.

Avoid traveling between Shikahogh and Meghri after dark, because of
unpredictable road conditions.

CHECHEN MERCENARIES NEVER FOUGHT ON KARABAKH SIDE – FOREIGN MINISTRY

May 8, 2013 – 19:46 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The Nagorno Karabakh Republic Foreign Ministry
commented on the statement by the President of the Chechen Republic
Ramzan Kadyrov, suggesting that Chechen mercenaries fought in Karabakh
on both sides.

“The statements that Chechen mercenaries fought for the Karabakh
Armenians are absolutely untrue. Unlike Azerbaijan, NKR never had
any no mercenaries of any nationality fighting on its side.

On the contrary, it was the Azerbaijani authorities, who unleashed a
full-scale war against Artsakh, extensively used mercenaries, trying
to break the morale of the Karabakh Armenians. Numerous facts testify
that in 1992-1993, about 3.000 Afghan mujahedins, as well as Chechen
detachments headed by Shamil Basayev fought against the Karabakh Army.

In early July 1992, the Chechen mercenaries in Nagorno Karabakh
amounted to about 300.

In July 1993, Chechen-Press Agency reported about Chechens’
participation in the military activities in Nagorno Karabakh, which
was confirmed by the first losses among them. After suffering heavy
losses, the Chechen troops left the Karabakh war scene.

In 2000, Basayev gave an interview to ANS Azerbaijani TV Company,
admitting his involvement in the Karabakh war: “We came to fight
in Karabakh not for trophies, but for the idea of jihad”. However,
Basayev said, “when we arrived at the scene and saw the situation,
we realized that there was no sign of jihad”.

Did the CIA commandeer the Boston bombing investigation?

MadCow
Morning News
May 3, 2013

by Daniel Hopsicker

It’s been more than 300 years ago since demonic possession figured as
heavily in a criminal probe as it has in the investigation into the
Boston Marathon bombing.

Not since the Salem Witch Trials has the search for accomplices to a
major crime centered so heavily on finding a suspect who believed he
could talk to demons.

“He took (and ate?) his brains”

Since the remaining of the two brothers accused of planting the bombs
was found cowering under a tarpaulin in a boat in a backyard in
Watertown Massachusetts two weeks ago, coverage of the bombing by the
most respected organs of the American mainstream media has been full
of breathless updates-delivered with a straight face-about the
progress of an FBI manhunt for a red-haired Muslim who talked to
demons, dabbled in exorcism, and walked around carrying other people’s
brains.

The drumbeat was started by Ruslan Tsarni, who became famous as
=80=9CUncle Ruslan’ for his forthright condemnation of the attack in a
now-famous news conference on his front lawn just four days after the
Boston Marathon Bombing.

`There is someone who brainwashed him, some new convert to Islam,”
Tsarni said. I would like to stress (the acquaintance was) of
Armenian descent.”

Since then he has been using the media to press investigators to find
Misha, a man who appeared to combine the worst features of villains
from two different horror movies.

`The Exorcist’ meets `The Walking Dead.’

“This person just took his brain. He just brainwashed him completely,”
Tsarnaev’s uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, told CNN from his home in Maryland,
describing the friend as an Armenian convert to Islam.

`The bombers’ uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, depicts Misha as a Rasputin-like
figure who “took [Tamerlan’s] brain” and said that his presence soon
became a source of tension within the family,’ reported USA Today.

Also citing the boys’ uncle, London’s Daily Mail reported that `Misha
used to give one-on-one sermons to Tamerlan over the kitchen table,
during which he claimed he could talk to demons.’

Tsarni, Tsarnaev’s uncle, told CNN he was so concerned about someone
brainwashing his nephew that he called a family friend in the
Cambridge area to investigate.

“I said, ‘Listen, do you know what is going on with that family? With
my brother’s family?’ Then he says … there is a person, some new
convert into Islam of Armenian descent,” Tsarni told CNN’s Shannon
Travis.

Tsarni said, “Armenians, I have no intention to say anything about
Armenians.’

Then he proceeded to do just that. =80=9CIt’s a neighboring region
with North Caucasus,” the same area where the Tsarnaev family also
hails from.’

A red-haried Armenian exorcist…with a big mouth…in Cambridge

Tsarni described Misha as being “chubby, a big guy, big mouth
presenting himself with some kind of abilities as exorcist
. . . having some part-time job in one of the stores, not married. All
of the qualifications of a loser, just another big mouth.’

According to Uncle Ruslan, Misha, over a considerable period of time,
had radicalized Tamerlan.

=80=9CBut there are signs that Tamerlan had become radicalized –
apparently from a friend in the United States named `Mischa’ –
described as a Russian of Armenian descent who was a relatively recent
convert to Islam and who lived in Cambridge, according by Tsarnaev’s
uncle, Ruslan Tsarni,’ NBC reported.

Tsarni told NBC News that Mischa presented himself as an `exorcist’
who specialized in `removing demons from people’s bodies.’

Not a day went by without references in the press to the search for
Misha. There were literally hundred of news reports about him. Very
soon, it began to appear there was nothing new to be said.

But that didn’t stop anyone. Reported New York magazine:

`According to reports, family members point the finger at a man
identified only as Misha, a friend whom Tamerlan knew through a local
mosque. Misha is described as a bald, red-bearded, 30-year-old
Armenian convert to Islam who “claimed to be an exorcist who is
fighting with demons.”

OMG…you mean he’s even scarier than…Alex Jones?

There was also a half-hearted attempt to draw Alex Jones into the
controversy. Reported the Atlantic Magazine online:

`The major development in the sleuthing of the Tsarnaev brothers,
specifically sinister Tamerlan, involves a red-bearded exorcist named
Misha.’

`Tamerlan listened to Alex Jones’s popular and usually looney radio
show Infowars. BuzzFeed’s Rosie Grey reached out to Jones to see how
he felt about having a suspected terrorist as a listener.’

It’s hard to imagine anyone asking Alex Jones, =80=9CHow does that
make you feel.’ But the effort to smear him was no doubt duly
noted. But the problem with doing any serious damage to Alex Jones was
simple: When you’re lookng for an Armenian exorcist who talks with
demons, slandering a poor radio host in the bargain loses its lustre.

The fever over finding Misha finally broke when somebodsy actually
found him. Christian Caryl of the New York Times Review of Books
scored the first media interview with Misha. In her interview with the
alleged Boston Bomber’s `Svengali,’ he told her he hadn’t seen or
spoken to anyone in the Tsarnaev family for more than three years.

Ooops! Uncle Ruslan’s response spoke volumes about him. Was he
abashed? Far from it. He changed his story without batting an eye, and
turned his attention to a secondary target, a woman who, if you’re
trying to create a distraction, is right out of Central Casting.

`Check out Bomb Mom’

Ruslan dismissed Zubeidat, who was arrested last year for stealing
$1,600 of lingerie from a department store, as a `bad character’.

`Ruslan Tsarni, told the AP from his home in Maryland that he
believed his former sister-in-law had a “big-time influence” on her
older son’s growing embrace of his Muslim faith and decision to quit
boxing and school.’

` Ruslan Tsarni claimed that Zubeidat allowed a firebrand cleric into
their house to give one-on-one sermons to Tamerlan over the kitchen
table during which he claimed he could talk to demons and perform
exorcisms.’

He told London Daily MailOnline : `The change of the older boy, one of
the biggest causes is her. `First she started playing into this
religious crap, they say is a devotion to Islam.’

“I work. Why do you want to know?”

Tsarni was cagey with reporters about what he did for a living.

`Tsarni was careful not to give out too much information, reported the
Washington Post. `When asked about his profession, he responded, `I
work, I work.”

And with good reason, because for the past twenty years he has almost
certainly been a CIA asset operating in a number of former Soviet
Republics.

Tsarni’s bio, in an official SEC filing, stated he worked for the US
Agency for International Development, USAID, during the early
1990’s. Bloomberg Business Review revealed last week that since 2008,
he’s again been working for USAID.

Famously, USAID workers build schools, as well as provide cover for
CIA assets overseas. Recently they were thrown out of Russia. Just
last week, they were asked to leave Bolivia.

In between his stints with the obviously-conflicted US Agency, Ruslan
Tsarni worked for several Halliburton-controlled oil companies, as
well as a Kazakh man charged with a major banking scandal in
Kazakhstan whose repercussions earlier this year stretched all the way
to London.

Maybe Ruslan Tsarni’s commute car doesn’t bear a `smoking gun’ parking
sticker from CIA headquarters in Langley. But neither his bio nor his
demeanor since the bombings qualify him for a `Humanitarian of the
Year’ award, either.

Of demons, exorcists, and shoddy shoddy journalism

The search for foreign involvement in the Boston Marathon Bombings has
been a sad joke.

The fact that no one has stood up and called “shenanigans” on the
mainstream purveyors of what is supposed to be responsible journalism
in this country is a national disgrace.

When you look at how this happened, its hard not to suspect that a
`higher power’ than the FBI was steering the investigation.

This raises the strong possibility that the FBI’s investigation into
the bombing has been manipulated, or steered, by the CIA.

In the post-mortems to come on the Boston Marathon bombing
investigation, the crucial question will be: Who was behind this
effort, and why?

A big question is what Uncle Ruslan stood to gain by making
accusations about Misha.

If you’re on a CIA’s crisis management team, and your job is to play
for time and try to run the clock out on the American people’s
attention span, the result might look something very much like the
last two weeks in America.

And if your goal was to forestall pointed questions about Ruslan
Tsarni and top CIA official Graham Fuller’s roles in the Tsarnaevs
family’s frequent trips to Dagestan, you couldn’t have played it
better.

Daniel Hopsicker is an investigative journalist dubious about the
self-serving assertion of U.S. officials that there are no American
Drug Lords.

ARMENIA’S ARONIAN FACES WORLD CHAMPION ANAND OF INDIA

May 8, 2013

Grandmaster (GM) Levon Aronian is playing against the World Champion,
GM Viswanathan Anand (India), in Wednesday’s first round of the Norway
Chess 2013 super tournament, which kicked off in Stavanger, Norway.

The objective of Tuesday’s blitz tournament was to decide the
random draw numbers of the participants in the main competition. As
a result of this tournament, Aronian-who plays first board for the
three-time World Chess Olympiad champion Armenian national team and
who is currently ranked second in the World Chess Federation (FIDE)
Ratings-took ninth place.

A total of ten GMs are competing in Norway Chess 2013.

NEWS.am Sport

ARMENIAN EXPERT WILLING TO JOIN RECONSTRUCTION WORKS IN ANI

13:36, 8 May, 2013

YEREVAN, MAY 8, ARMENPRESS. ICOMOS/Armenia is looking forward to
the establishment of experts’ group by the International Council on
Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) for the reconstruction works in Ani. A
number of experts from ICOMOS/Armenia and ICOMOS/Turkey will be
included in the group. They will have an opportunity to follow the
reconstruction works launched in Ani on September, 2012. The matter
is about Mother Cathedral and Church of the Holy Saviour of All in Ani.

In a conversation with “Armenpress” the Chairman of ICOMOS/Armenia
organization Gagik Gyurjyan stated that the Armenia has already
decided who will represent the Armenian side in Ani. Among other
things Gyurjyan underscored: “We are completely ready to partake in the
reconstruction works.” Notwithstanding, the Chairman of ICOMOS/Armenia
organization Gagik Gyurjyan abstained from saying the name of the
Armenian architect.

The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) (French:
Conseil international des monuments et des sites) is a professional
association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural
heritage places around the world. ICOMOS was founded in 1965 in Warsaw
as a result of the Venice Charter of 1964 and offers advice to UNESCO
on World Heritage Sites.

ARAM HAMPARIAN: IT’S TIME FOR NEW AMERICAN APPROACH TO ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

14:41 08/05/2013 ” POLITICS

Aram Hamparian, the ANCA Executive Director, has published an article
in Asbarez.com, where he spoke about the position of the United States
on the Armenian Genocide. The article says, in part:

“It’s time for a new American approach to the Armenian Genocide,
one that is as simple as it is sound: Progress and peace based upon
truth and justice.

American policy on the Armenian Genocide can be both principled
and practical.

Years of futile U.S. efforts to appease Turkey have failed to end
Ankara’s blockade of Armenia and only hardened Ankara’s denial of
truth and obstruction of justice for this crime.

This denial poisons Armenian-Turkish relations, fosters wave after
wave of anti-Armenian intolerance within Turkey, threatens Armenia’s
and Artsakh’s security, and, of course, fuels regional tensions.

The future of this region – it’s sustainable stability over the
long-term – cannot be built upon a foundation of lies. Justice is
good geopolitics.

It’s time for the Obama-Biden Administration to reject Ankara’s
gag-rule and proudly reaffirm our government’s record of having
recognized the Armenian Genocide. Sadly, under foreign pressure,
President Obama has failed to reflect, much less reinforce, America’s
standing acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide as a crime of
genocide.

After years of failed efforts to appease Ankara, it’s time for
President Obama to honor his words, and for our government to live
up to America’s promise of truth and justice.

It’s time to stop outsourcing our nation’s Armenian Genocide policy
to Turkey, and – in the interest of both regional stability and our
core values as a nation – to reclaim American leadership in support
of a truthful and just resolution of this crime.”

Source: Panorama.am

LE PARTI REPUBLICAIN A REMPORTE LA MAJORITE ABSOLUE DES SIÈGES DU CONSEIL MUNICIPAL DE EREVAN

Le 5 mai, les habitants de Erevan ont pour la deuxième fois (une
première fois en 2009) elu le Conseil municipal de la capitale, qui, a
son tour, elira le maire d’Erevan. 6 partis politiques et une alliance
etaient en lice. Le nombre des electeurs inscrits etait de 816 475.

Ainsi, par rapport aux elections presidentielles, une baisse de 1
339 electeurs etait constatee sur cette liste. 437 000 personnes soit
53,53% se sont rendus aux urnes dans 464 bureaux de vote.

Ce scrutin a ete aussi sans precedent par le nombre d’observateurs
locaux, plus de 6000 representants de 26 organisations locales
accreditees. Une seule structure internationale, le Congrès des
pouvoirs locaux et regionaux du Conseil de l’Europe a observe ce
scrutin (12 observateurs deployes).

D’après les resultats preliminaires annonces par la Commission
electorale centrale, les voix se repartissent ainsi :

Parti Republicain- 55,89% (235 512 voix)

Armenie prospère – 23,07% (97 189 voix)

Alliance Bonjour Erevan- 8,48% (35 732 voix)

Congrès national armenien – 4,39% (18 499)

FRA/Dachnaksoutioun- 3,8% (15 999 voix)

Etat de droit – 3,73% (15 733 voix)

Parti Mission – 0,64 % (2 692 voix)

Ainsi, seront representees au sein du Conseil municipal de Erevan,
trois formations politiques, le parti Republicain, Armenie prospère
et l’alliance Bonjour Erevan, constituee autour du parti Heritage de
Raffi Hovhannissian et de cinq autres groupes politiques. L’election
de la tete de liste du parti Republicain, Taron Margarian, en tant que
maire de Erevan par le nouveau Conseil municipal ne fait plus de doute.

Extrait de la revue de presse de l’Ambassade de France en Armenie en
date du 6 mai 2013

mercredi 8 mai 2013, Stephane ©armenews.com

DYNAMIQUE CULTURELLE DES ARMENIENS D’ABKHAZIE

Le 3 mai, au centre ” Energetik ” de Cacra en Abkhazie (Republique
autonome separee de la Georgie), la communaute armenienne des Hamshens
a organise le 18e festival artistique armenien. Le site armenien
yerkramas.org rapporte que près de 1000 personnes etaient presentes
a cette manifestation dans une salle prevue pour un public de 450
personnes. Signe de l’intense activite de la communaute armenienne
d’Abkhazie. La vedette de la rencontre culturelle etait la troupe de
danse ” Pert ” dirigee par Garoush Davdyan, de l’ecole numero 3 de
la ville de Cacra. Jeunes danseurs et danseuses qui ont enthousiasme
la salle où parents et amis etaient presents.

Krikor Amirzayan

mercredi 8 mai 2013, Krikor Amirzayan ©armenews.com

AZERBAIJANI DIPLOMAT: ‘ARMENIA KEEPS GETTING WEAKER AND WEAKER’

AzerNews, Azerbaijan
May 7 2013

By Gulgiz Dadashova

The current Armenian leadership might hope to be gaining time by
creating obstacles for the resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, Consul General of Azerbaijan in Los
Angeles Nasimi Aghayev has said while delivering lectures at the
University of California, San Diego, and University of San Diego.

“Building on such assumption, they are largely mistaken, because the
experience of the last 20 years shows that the policy of preserving the
status quo does not yield any results and the international community
remains firmly committed to Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity,”
Aghayev said.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally
recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent
regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus
neighbor that had caused a lengthy war in the early 1990s.

The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia’s
withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been
enforced to this day.

Aghayev informed the students and professors participating at the
lectures about the military occupation of a large swath of Azerbaijan
by Armenia and the grave consequences of this occupation.

He said that Azerbaijan is getting stronger and stronger, whereas
Armenia keeps getting weaker and weaker.

“Given this circumstance alone, Armenia’s leadership should end its
non-constructive policy that primarily damages the interests of the
Armenian people, and put all its efforts towards the soonest resolution
of the conflict,” Aghayev said.

The Consul General also spoke about the rich history and culture
of Azerbaijan, its steady development since independence, its
transformation into one of the key actors in the wider region, the
current state of its relations with neighboring countries, and the
strategic partnership with the United States, as well as highlighted
Azerbaijan’s strong traditions of ethnic and religious tolerance
and inclusion.

AZERBAIJAN THREATENS FRESNO COUNTY

Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

Fresno County

FRESNO-The Fresno County Board of Supervisors became the newest
target of Azerbaijan’s wrath after the local body passed a
resolution recognizing the self-determination of the people of the
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic and its independence last month.

The Fresno Bee reported Tuesday that Azerbaijan has officially
written to the Board of Supervisors urging the body to rescind the
April 23 resolution.

Fresno County became the first County in California to officially
recognize the independence of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (Artsakh).

On April 23, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution sponsored
by Supervisor Andreas Borgeas that officially recognizes the Nagorno
Karabakh Republic – a region historically and ethnically Armenian
situated between Armenia and Azerbaijan – and also calls upon the
California Legislature to grant official recognition.

The Permanent Representative of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic in the
United States, Robert Avetisyan, commented at the time that “[w]e
are grateful for [this] initiative, and hope that the adoption of
this Resolution will set a deeper cooperation towards stability,
as well as democratic and economic prosperity in our region.” The
Consul General of the Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles, Grigor
Hovhannisian, commented that “[e]very step toward the recognition
of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic is a step toward peace and friendly
relations in the South Caucasus. I whole-heartedly welcome recognition
efforts by community and elected officials, as a continuation of
friendly relations and solidarity between the people of the Republic
of Artsakh, the Republic of Armenia and Fresno, California.”

“This fuels fighting between the communities,” Azerbaijani Deputy
Consul General Ramil Gurbanov, who is based in Los Angeles, told
The Fresno Bee on Monday. It doesn’t help achieve “a diplomatic and
peaceful solution in the region.”

“We stand with our Armenian friends, both in Armenia and
Nagorno-Karabakh … We will not be muscled by a well-funded lobbying
effort by the Azerbaijanis,” said Borgeas told the Fresno Bee,
indicating that the Board of Supervisors will not budge from its
earlier decision.

Following the passage of the resolution on April 23 Borgeas said,
“I am thrilled to stand beside our Armenian friends – here, in
Armenia and Artsakh – and hope Sacramento will also officially
recognize the independence of NKR. While Fresno County is the first
County in California to pass such a resolution, my goal is for this
initiative to help inspire more recognition efforts throughout the
state, country and eventually Washington, D.C.”

“[T]his resolution by the Fresno County Board of Supervisors is timely,
appropriate and significant,” William Bairamian, Executive Director
of the Armenian National Committee – Western Region commented at the
time. State legislatures in Maine, Rhode Island and Massachusetts
have already passed similar resolutions.