Author: Tatoyan Vazgen

Asbarez: Australia ANC Director Meets with Artsakh Foreign Minister

Tatoyan Vazgen
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Artsakh Foreign Minister Masis Mayilyan (left) with ANC-Australia Executive Director Haig Kayserian

STEPANAKERT—The Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU), Haig Kayserian met with Artsakh Foreign Minister, Masis Mayilian on Tuesday.

The meeting, which took place at the Artsakh Foreign Ministry reviewed recent developments in the Nagorno Karabakh peace process, as well as ANC-AU efforts in raising awareness for the rights to self-determination for the Armenians of Artsakh.

Mayilian was highly praised these initiatives, as well as the efforts of the greater Armenian-Australian community and the Republic of Artsakh’s Representative in Australia, Kaylar Michaelian.

Kayserian, who was accompanied by Artsakh Member of Parliament, Davit Ishkhanyan and the Chair of Armenian National Committee – International, Hagop Der Khachaturian, pointed out that some of the key 2018 achievements which were discussed included:

Recognition of the Republic of Artsakh by the City of Ryde;

Australia’s foreign policy shift to a more neutral standing on the Nagorno Karabakh peace process;

Multiple speeches in the New South Wales and Federal parliaments advocating for the right to self-determination of the Republic of Artsakh; and

ANC-Austrialia and ANC leaders with Artsakh Foreign Minister Masis Mayilyan

The meetings with Federal Parliamentarians during the visit of former State Minister, Arayik Harutyunyan, whose trip to Australia was also highlighted by a resolution from the New South Wales (NSW) Armenia – Australia Parliamentary Friendship Group, declaring the cross-party collective’s solidarity with the Republic of Artsakh and its people’s right to self-determination.

“Mr. Mayilian was very appreciative of our community’s efforts in standing with the Republic of Artsakh, promoting the safety and rights of its citizens,” Kayserian said. “I reiterated our pledge to continue with renewed vigour, as Armenian-Australians will always prioritise peace and security for the Republic of Artsakh.”

Mayilian and Kayserian discussed future plans to increase bilateral relations between the Republic of Artsakh and Australia, and they set certain targets in this regard.

Turkey Turns On Its Christians

Tatoyan Vazgen
Middle East Forum
Jan 6 2019

by Anne-Christine Hoff
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2018

While Christians make up less than half a percent of Turkey’s population, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Reconciliation Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) depict them as a grave threat to the stability of the nation. With Erdoğan’s jihadist rhetoric often stereotyping Christian Turkish citizens as not real Turks but rather as Western stooges and collaborators, many Turks seem to be tilting toward an “eliminationist anti-Christian mentality,” to use historian Daniel Goldhagen’s term. Small wonder that the recent launch of an official online genealogy service allowing Turks to trace their ancestry has kindled a tidal xenophobic wave on the social media welcoming the fresh possibility to expose “Crypto-Armenians, Greeks, and Jews” mascarading as true Turks. [1]

“The Mosques Are Our Barracks”

Persecution of Turkey’s Christian minority has long predated Erdoğan and the AKP. As it stood on the verge of extinction, the Ottoman Empire engaged in mass deportations and massacres that culminated in the Armenian genocide. The end of World War I saw the expulsion of more than a million Greeks,[2] and the position of the dwindling Christian community only somewhat improved in Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s secularist republic. Yet while Kemalist Turkey paid lip service to the equality of its non-Muslim minorities, the AKP unabashedly excludes these groups from Turkey’s increasingly Islamist national ethos.[3]

An ominous indication of what lay in store for the religious minorities was afforded as early as December 1998 when Erdoğan, then mayor of Istanbul and an opposition politician, announced that the “mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets, and the faithful our soldiers,” quoting a line from a poem by the nineteenth-century nationalist poet Ziya Gökalp underscoring the Islamist foundation of Turkish identity. And while this recitation landed Erdoğan in prison for inciting religion-based hatred,[4] once at the helm, he steadily realized this vision, systematically undoing Atatürk’s secularist legacy and Islamizing Turkey’s public space through such means as the government-operated Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), which pays the salaries of the country’s 110,000 imams and controls the content of their Friday sermons.

Things came to a head during the July 15, 2016 abortive coup when the regime ordered the imams to go to their mosques and urge the faithful to take to the streets to quash the attempted revolt.[5] Not surprisingly, this Islamist-nationalist reassertion was accompanied by numerous Christophobic manifestations (in Ayyan Hirsi Ali’s words),[6] notably attacks on churches throughout the country.[7] In Malatya, for example, a gang chanting “Allahu Akbar” broke the glass panels of the front door of a Protestant church while, in the Black Sea city of Trabzon, rioters smashed the windows of the Santa Maria Catholic church. Witnesses said the attackers used hammers to break down the door of the church before Muslim neighbors drove them away.[8] As Istanbul pastor Yüce Kabakçı lamented:

The reality is that Turkey is neither a democracy nor a secular republic. There is no division between government affairs and religious affairs. There’s no doubt that the government uses the mosques to get its message across to its grassroots supporters. There is an atmosphere in Turkey right now that anyone who isn’t Sunni is a threat to the stability of the nation. Even the educated classes here don’t associate personally with Jews or Christians. It’s more than suspicion. It’s a case of let’s get rid of anyone who isn’t Sunni.[9]

Anti-Christmas Campaigns

Anti-Christian incitement continued apace after the coup. In February 2017, Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches released its annual “Rights Violation Report,” which claimed that anti-Christian hate speech had increased in Turkey in both social and conventional media, reaching extreme levels during the 2016 Christmas season. Churches in particular faced serious terror threats with the government doing little to stop these open Christophobic displays.[10]

On December 28, 2016, for example, in the western province of Aydin, the ultra-nationalist Islamist group Alperen Hearths staged a forced conversion of Santa Claus to Islam, putting a gun to the head of an actor dressed as Santa Claus. A representative of the group explained the staging of the conversion this way:

Our purpose is for people to go back to their roots. We are the Muslim Turkish people who have been leading Islam for thousands of years. We will not celebrate Christian traditions and disregard our own traditions like Hıdrellez, Nevruz, and other religious national holidays.[11]

In the city of Van, a billboard read: “Have you ever seen a Christian celebrating Eid al-Adha? Why are we celebrating their festivals?” A group of students at Istanbul Technical University held up signs that read: “Do not be tempted by Satan. Do not celebrate New Year”; “There is no Christmas in Islam”; and “In Muslim lands, people are trying to stay alive; in their lands, it is all about festivities.”[12]

It is easy to dismiss such events as mere talk. However, in Muslim-majority states, notably Egypt, Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations often form the scene of murderous attacks.[13] So it was in Turkey on December 31, 2016, when an ISIS-affiliated terrorist wearing a Santa hat sprayed gunfire at a mixed group of foreigners and Turks enjoying their 2017 New Year’s celebration at an Istanbul nightclub, killing 39 people and wounding another 69.[14] In an editorial in The Guardian on January 3, 2017, Turkish novelist Elif Shafak described the rising anti-Western fanaticism as unnerving:

Those who question the party line are labeled “betrayers” and “pawns” of Western powers. Young people are told that we are a country surrounded by water on three sides and enemies on all four. As paranoia, distrust, and fear intensify, the culture of coexistence dissolves.

Shafak recounted other recent incidents that have distressed Christians and other religious minorities in Turkey. For example, in a Friday sermon broadcast to mosques throughout the country, the Diyanet called New Year’s celebrations “illegitimate.” For weeks prior to New Year’s Eve, ultra-nationalist and Islamist groups distributed flyers on the streets claiming, “Muslims do not celebrate Christian festivals.” [15]

A State-sponsored Conspiracy Theory

The post-coup anti-Christian rhetoric has tended to follow a familiar pattern, namely that Christian Turkish citizens are not real Turks but are instead loyal to the West. The rhetoric conflates many different streams of Western thought: The secular reveler who embraces the New Year’s tradition and the pious Christian who celebrates Christmas are equally suspect. Such rhetoric would not be quite so dangerous if the Turkish media offered a counterargument, but with the government’s mass incarceration of all those remotely critical of the AKP and Erdoğan, it is unlikely that any viable alternative will be presented to the Turkish public.

According to Voice of America News, in the months following the coup, many pro-government media outlets and some government officials directly accused the West, Christians, and Jews of having played a role in it. For example, at a pro-government “Democracy and Martyrs” rally in August, attended by more than a million people, speakers linked religious minorities to the coup plotters, calling them “seeds of Byzantium,” “crusaders,” and a “flock of infidels.”[16] Human rights lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz said pro-government media have:

embraced an alarming narrative of scapegoating Turkey’s religious minority and connecting the coup plot to them … Particularly pro-government media outlets have taken an anti-U.S. and anti-EU attitude, which I can call a xenophobic attitude, in which they attempt to demonize the West and accuse it of the coup attempt. And this narrative targets and harms non-Muslims in Turkey.[17]

The Islamization of Turkish Institutions

While the idea that Christian Turks are collaborators with the West is nothing new, the uncritical mass acceptance of such a narrative has exacerbated the coup’s effect on Turkey’s Christian minority. According to American anthropologist Jenny White, the educational system in Turkey has for years promoted a distrustful view of Christian Turks and the predominantly Christian West. This perception of Christian Turks as the “other” can best be understood by reviewing the curriculum of security courses that were mandatory for all high school students from 1926 until January 2012. Taught by active or retired military officers appointed by the local military base, such courses articulated the idea that Turkey has no friends and that no country in the world wants it to be strong. Security textbooks often presented non-Sunni citizens as divisive, internal elements supported by Turkey’s enemies.[18] A similarly stark picture is painted by anthropologist Ayşe Gül Altınay. Having observed classrooms around the country, Altınay found almost no discussion of peace, coexistence, dialogue, or nonviolence. Instead, students were taught to fear differences and to treat their non-Muslim friends as decidedly the “other.”[19]

Turkey’s school system has been used as a political arm of the state ever since Atatürk founded the Turkish republic in the 1920s, and the AKP has gradually shifted the system away from its secularist roots. In July 2017, for example, Education Minister Ismet Yılmaz declared that Turkish public schools would no longer teach Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Instead, the concept of jihad would be added to the religious teaching curriculum beginning with the 2017-18 academic year, and schools would be required to teach the concept as patriotic in spirit. As Yılmaz told reporters:

It is our duty to fix what has been perceived as wrong. This is why the Islamic law class and basic fundamental religion class will include [lessons on] jihad. Loving your nation is the real meaning of jihad.[20]

According to White, not only the education system but also government organizations and the military perceive Christians as a threat to Turkish unity. For example, until recently, both the official website of the army chief of staff and the Diyanet listed missionary activity as one of the main threats facing Turkey. In 2001, the National Security Council identified Protestant missionaries as the third-largest threat facing the nation. Three years later a report by the Turkish armed forces accused Protestant missionaries of planning to pass out a million Bibles and to convert 10 percent of the Turkish population by 2020, and urged cooperation among governors, mayors, and security and education personnel to counter the danger. In a 2005 article in its monthly magazine, the Diyanet warned that while missionary activities appeared innocent, their object was to divide the country, undermine its unity, and make Turkish citizens tools of their dark ambitions.[21]

In a further indication of this trend, the Syrian Christian co-mayor of Mardin was asked to step down from her post by the Turkish government in November 2017. Likewise, the Turkish authorities removed an Assyrian sculpture from a public square in front of the local council building in Diyarbakir. No explanation was given for the removal of either the sculpture or the co-mayor, who was replaced by an official appointed by the government.[22]

In reality, the alleged threat that Turkey could become a Christian nation is readily belied by the country’s demographics, especially when looking at changes in domestic religious affiliation over the past century. According to the Ottoman census, Turkey’s Christian minority was just under 20 percent of the population in 1914. By 1927—a mere thirteen years later—Christians made up less than 2.5 percent of the population. Today Christians make up less than 0.2 percent of Turkey’s population of 80 million. (Included in that number are an estimated 45,000 Christian refugees fleeing ISIS persecution in Iraq and Syria.[23]) In fact, even the puny 0.2 percent estimate may be a little high. The official census puts Islam at 99.8 percent of the adopted religion of Turks and 0.2 percent as “other” (mostly Christians and Jews).[24]

New Obstacles to Worship

Like other Islamic-majority states, the rights of Christians in Turkey have never been the same as those of the Muslim majority—not in the Ottoman Empire and not today. Modern-day laws remain biased in favor of Muslims. Church buildings are not allowed to be taller than certain heights while enormous mosques are built on the highest hilltops. Christian worship services are only permitted in “buildings created for the purpose.” Turks who openly discuss Christianity face harassment, threats, and imprisonment. Most churches are surrounded by high walls and protected by 24-hour guards.[25]

Even so, Turkish Christians and other minorities noted a qualitative change in the tenor of the Sunni majority’s attitude toward them after the 2016 coup. According to Ian Sherwood, the chaplain of the British consulate and the priest of the Crimean Memorial Church:

There is a rising undercurrent of intolerance toward Christians and other non-Muslims in Turkey and this goes further than boys standing on the walls of [the] churchyard shouting “Allahu Akbar.” We Anglicans have been here since 1582 and yet we’re not able to build churches except for a short period in the nineteenth century. And now it’s very rare that you hear of a Christian community being able to build a church.[26]

Added to such obstacles is the threat of Islamist extremists targeting churches, which increased dramatically after the coup attempt. According to Umut Şahin, secretary general of the Union of Protestant Churches and a pastor in Izmir, “Some people sent death threats to the mobile phones of 15 pastors. They used the same terms and arguments as ISIS in their text messages. They sent the pastors propaganda videos of ISIS.”[27] Protestant church leader Ihsan Ozbek revealed that some churches have canceled Sunday services because of fear of an ISIS attack. “This has created deep fear and panic in our community,” he said.[28]

In some cases, the government or local town councils have appropriated the church property of Christian Turks. In April 2016 for example, the authorities seized all the churches in the majority Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir. The historic Armenian Surp Giragos Church, a 1,700-year old church and one of the largest Armenian churches in the Middle East, was seized by the government.[29] And while the government justified the move by the need to rebuild and restore the city’s historic center after ten months of bitter fighting against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan), many within the Christian community were skeptical of the explanation. The Diyarbakir Bar Association, representing Christians worshipping at one of the churches, filed an appeal over the action.[30]

The Turkish government also recently seized multiple properties in the southeastern city of Mardin belonging to Assyrian (Syrian) Christians and transferred them to public institutions: Dozens of churches and monasteries were reassigned to the Diyanet; cemeteries were transferred to the metropolitan municipality.[31] This seizure of church property is one of many indications that the government does not view Christians as part of the broader Turkish community.

A New Genocide?

For some religious minorities, these confiscations bring back bitter memories. A little over a century ago, in 1915, the Ottoman Empire’s Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) passed legislation authorizing the deportation of “persons judged to be a threat to national security.” Deportees, many of whom were Armenian Christians, were instructed not to sell their assets but rather to provide a detailed list of what they owned:

Leave all your belongings—your furniture, your beddings, your artifacts. Close your shops and businesses with everything inside. Your doors will be sealed with special stamps. On your return, you will get everything you left behind. Do not sell property or any expensive item. Buyers and sellers alike will be liable for legal action. …You have ten days to comply with this ultimatum.[32]

The exact extent of confiscated properties during this period of mass extermination of Armenian Christians is unknown. But according to the private documents of Talaat Pasha, the Ottoman interior minister and chief architect of the confiscation legislation, a total of 20,545 buildings and 267,536 acres of land were confiscated by the government as well as agricultural land: 76,942 acres of vineyards; 703,941 acres of olive groves; and 4,573 acres of mulberry gardens.[33] During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, an Armenian delegation estimated the worth of material losses suffered by the Armenian Church at $3.7 billion (about $51 billion today).[34]

A century later, Turkey’s civil codes still give the executive far-reaching powers to confiscate property on the basis of protecting “the national unity” of the Turkish republic.[35]

Conclusion

Under Erdoğan’s leadership, especially after the 2016 coup, Turkey’s religious minorities find themselves marginalized and isolated from the Sunni majority. Anti-Western and anti-EU rhetoric often morphs into rabid anti-Christian incitement with the clear message that the country’s Christian citizens are not true Turks, a message that the state-controlled media and government officials have either actively promoted or refused to denounce. Exacerbated by government policies such as the addition of jihad teaching to the school curriculum, these measures place Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities in an increasingly precarious situation.

Anne-Christine Hoff is an assistant professor of English at Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins, Texas.

Notes

[1] Fehim Taştekin, “Turkish genealogy database fascinates, frightens Turks,” al-Monitor (Washington, D.C.), Feb. 21, 2018.

[2] Renée Hirschon, ed., Crossing the Aegean: An Appraisal of the 1923 Compulsory Population Exchange between Greece and Turkey (Oxford: Berghan, 2003), p. 6.

[3] John Eibner, “Turkey’s Christians under Siege,” Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2011, pp. 41-52; Daniel Pipes, “Dhimmis No More: Christians’ Trauma in the Middle East,” danielpipes.org, Jan. 2018.

[4] Deborah Sontag. “The Erdogan Experiment.” The New York Times Magazine, May 11, 2003.

[5] The New York Times, July 17, 2016; al-Monitor, July 25, 2016.

[6] Ayaan Hirsi Ali, “The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World,” Newsweek, Feb. 6, 2012.

[7] The New York Times, Apr. 23, 2016; World Watch Monitor (London), Feb. 7, 2018

[8] The Express (London), Apr. 22, 2016.

[9] Ibid., Aug. 1, 2016.

[10] Turkish Association of Protestant Churches Human Rights Violations Report, 2016, South Hadley, Mass.

[11] Hürriyet Daily News (Istanbul), Dec. 29, 2016.

[12] Elif Shafak, “The Reina atrocity shows how deeply fanaticism has taken hold in Turkey,” The Guardian, Jan. 3, 2017.

[13] See, for example, “A Gruesome Christmas under Islam,” ryamondibrahim.com, Jan. 18, 2016; “Death and Destruction on Christmas: Muslim Persecution of Christians, December 2016,” raymondibrahim.com, Mar. 13, 2017.

[14] The Guardian, Jan. 1, 2017.

[15] Shafak, “The Reina atrocity shows how deeply fanaticism has taken hold in Turkey.”

[16] The National Herald (New York), Sept. 28, 2016.

[17] Voice of America News, Sept. 25, 2016.

[18] Jenny White, Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013), pp. 80-101.

[19] Ayşe Gül Altınay, “Human Rights or Militarist Ideals? Teaching National Security in High Schools,” in Gürol Irzik, Deniz Tarba Ceylan, and Ismet Akça, eds., Human Rights Issues in Textbooks: The Turkish Case (Istanbul: Tarih Vakfı Yayınları, 2004), pp. 76-90

[20] The Independent (London), July 18, 2017.

[21] White, Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks, pp. 80-101

[22] Uzay Bulut, “Turkey Uncensored: The Fate of Assyrian Christian Churches and Monasteries,” The Philos Project, New York, July 13, 2017.

[23] “Attacks hint that Christians may fare worse in post-coup Turkey,” Iraqi Christian Relief Council, Glenview, Ill. Aug. 23, 2016.

[24] “Turkey, People and Society,” CIA World Factbook (Washington, D.C.: CIA Office of Public Affairs, Mar. 16, 2018).

[25] “Is Ataturk’s dream of a secular Turkey lost?” Belief Net News (Virginia Beach), accessed Mar. 3, 2018.

[26] Alec Marsh, “The war on Christians is extending into Turkey,” The Spectator, July 19, 2016.

[27] Burak Bekdil, “Red Alert! Protestant Couple ‘Security Threat’ to Turkey!” The Gatestone Institute, New York, Oct. 22, 2016.

[28] Voice of America News, Sept. 25, 2016.

[29] The New York Times, Apr. 23, 2016.

[30] The Express, Apr. 22, 2016.

[31] Agos (Istanbul), June 23, 2017.

[32] Uğur Umit Ungör and Mehmet Polatel, Confiscation and Destruction: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Property (New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2011), p. 69.

[33] Taner Akçam, A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2007), p. 86.

[34] Vahagn Avedian, “State Identity, Continuity and Responsibility: The Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey and the Armenian Genocide,” European Journal of International Law, 2013, no. 3, pp. 797-820.

[35] Mehmet Polatel, Beyannamesi: Istanbul Ermeni Vakıflarının el konan mulkeri (Istanbul: Uluslararası Hrant Dink Vakfı Yayınlari, 2012), p. 69.

Armenian citizen injured in Lviv Christmas Fair blast dies in hospital

Tatoyan Vazgen
UNIAN, Ukraine
Jan 2 2019
 
Armenian citizen injured in Lviv Christmas Fair blast dies in hospital
16:20,
UKRAINE: The man’s condition was very serious, as burns covered 50% of his body’s surface area. Varta 1 NGO An Armenian citizen, 50, one of the victims of the December 22 explosion at the Christmas Fair in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, has died in the intensive care ward of the city’s 8th Clinical Hospital. Read also Gas blast in residential building near Kyiv: Two bodies found under rubble “Despite medical assistance, the doctors failed to save the life of a man injured in an explosion at the fair. The man was in the intensive care unit and his condition was serious. Yesterday [December 31], his health check results worsened. The man died today,” Lviv City Council said in a statement on its website on January 1.
Ihor Stoyanovskyi, a deputy chief physician for the surgical care department at the 8th Clinical Hospital, said that the victim’s condition was constantly serious, as burns covered 50% of his body’s surface area. As UNIAN reported earlier, at 13:15 Kyiv time on December 22, 2018, a gas cylinder exploded at a booth amid the Christmas Fair near Lviv’s Opera Theater building. As a result, three wooden pavilions were destroyed by fire and five people were injured. Four victims were in stable but serious condition.
 
 

2019 to be a year of victories of more strategic nature – Nikol Pashinyan

Tatoyan Vazgen
Panorama, Armenia
Dec 29 2018

On the occasion of New Year and Holy Christmas, acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan along with President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian, Speaker of the Parliament Ara Babloyan and the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II hosted a reception for the representatives of the state administration.

In his welcome message, the acting PM spoke of the mission ahead of the new cabinet in the coming new year.

“Our cabinet is a cabinet of mission which is set to realize its mission as it is formulated and rested upon the faith and confidence of our people toward the past and the future. The mission is also based upon the perception that the t people that have persisted through centuries of disasters cannot suffer a defeat as if we were destined to lose we would have lost long ago. Subsequently, the Armenian people is a winning nation it proved to be in 2018,” Pashinyan said in his speech.

“I congratulate you all on 2018 and 2019 alike. I am confident that like 2018, the year 2019 will be a year of victories but of more comprehensive and strategic nature. In the new year 2019, I wish you and your families happiness, and success in both your professional and personal endeavors,” Pashinyan concluded his speech.

Byurakan village becomes a popular tourist attraction of Armenia

Tatoyan Vazgen
ARKA, Armenia
Dec 26 2018

YEREVAN, December 26 /ARKA/. The Armenian village of Byurakan, hosting the famous Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory, has become one of the most popular tourist attractions of the country, Areg Mikayelyan, the director of the observatory, said at a press conference on Wednesday.

He said in 2017 some 17,000 tourists visited the observatory, up from 3-4 thousand tourists that used to visit it several years ago. He said this year alone the observatory has earned 12 million drams as tourism-generated income, up from 4.7 million drams in 2017.

He said also the  Byurakan Observatory has successfully retained its status of the regional astronomical center.  

In 2018 Byurakan Observatory researchers have published 50 scientific papers in various journals  and participated in a number of key international scientific conferences and projects.

Mikayelyan said that the observatory in 2018 received 212 million drams of budget funds, a similar amount is provided by the draft state budget for 2019. According to the director, the wage fund makes up 65% of budget financing. ($ 1- 484 dram) –0–

Armenia dreams turn sour as immigration firm dupes 22 city youths

Tatoyan Vazgen
The Tribune, India
Dec 20 2018


Armenia dreams turn sour as immigration firm dupes 22 city youths

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 20

A city-based immigration firm allegedly duped around 22 city residents of approximately Rs 18 lakhs on the pretext of sending them to Armenia. As per residents who are now terming it a fraud, the travel agent of the firm has locked the office and is absconding now.

Lakhvir Singh, Jatinder Singh, Baldev Singh from the city and Bittu from Amritsar, among others, said, “An immigration firm, Standard Life, that was operating in the Basant Nagar area has cheated us. The owner of the firm, Mandeep Singh, and his assistant Simarjit Kaur had promised us of providing work visa and jobs of food packers and drivers in Armenia. They charged Rs 90,000 from each candidate. There are 22 candidates cheated by the firm. The travel agent not only fled away with the money, but also did not return our passports.”

They said, “Even the air travel tickets provided by them were fake and we had to return from the Delhi airport after the authorities concerned raised questions over the authenticity of the documents/tickets. When we contacted the assistant working at the immigration firm, she told us that the tickets have exceeded the travel time limit and asked us to return to Bathinda so that she could provide fresh tickets to us. But when we came back to Bathinda from Delhi, we were shocked to see that the office of the immigration firm was lying locked. ”

The victims have submitted a written complaint to SSP Nanak Singh and urged him to do the needful.

Armenian Court of Appeal upholds ruling to arrest ex-President Kocharyan – lawyer

Tatoyan Vazgen
RT – Russia Today
Dec 7 2018
Armenian Court of Appeal upholds ruling to arrest ex-President Kocharyan – lawyer
   
Published time: 7 Dec, 2018 12:29 Edited time: 7 Dec, 2018 13:32

Armenia’s Criminal Court of Appeal of the Republic has ruled to arrest the former President Robert Kocharyan, his lawyer, Aik Alumyan, said on Friday. The court has left the decision of the first-instance court as it was and has dismissed the claims of defense. “This means that Kocharyan will be arrested,” RIA Novosti quoted Alumyan as saying. Kocharyan served as president from 1998 to 2008. In July, the former president was charged with an attempt to overthrow Armenia’s constitutional order during 2008 protests that erupted following the presidential election.

The California Courier Online, December 6, 2018

Tatoyan Vazgen

The California Courier Online, December 6, 2018

1 –        Commentary

            Sen. Menendez Delays Senate Confirmation

            Of US Ambassador to Azerbaijan

            By Harut Sassounian

            Publisher, The California Courier

            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

2-         England: Derby City Council Recognizes Armenian Genocide

3-         Commentary: Fabulous, albeit Complete Failure

            By Claude Mutafian

4 –        Commentary: We, as a people, are better than that

            By Sona Hamalian

5-         The women who remove deadly landmines

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

1 –        Commentary

            Sen. Menendez Delays Senate Confirmation

            Of US Ambassador to Azerbaijan

            By Harut Sassounian

            Publisher, The California Courier

            www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

Pres. Donald Trump nominated on Sept. 4, 2018, career Foreign Service
Officer Earle Litzenberger to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan
replacing Amb. Robert Cekuta who left Baku nine months ago.

A month before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s October 4,
2018 hearing on Litzenberger’s confirmation, the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA) issued a press release urging the Armenian
American community, friends of Armenia, and human rights activists to
call on their Senators to scrutinize Litzenberger’s nomination.

Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of ANCA, explained that “there’s
never been a more urgent need for clarity regarding the nature and
scope of American relations with the Aliyev regime. This confirmation
process provides a much-needed opportunity for substantive
Congressional oversight of an increasingly troubled U.S.-Azerbaijan
bilateral relationship, characterized by escalating aggression against
Armenians, a worsening crackdown on dissent, and a well-funded
campaign to manipulate the American political process.”

Litzenberger has served as Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund;
Deputy Chief of Mission to the United States Mission to NATO; NATO
Deputy Senior Civilian Representative to Afghanistan; Deputy Chief of
Mission at the United States Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia; and Deputy
Chief of Mission at the United States Embassy in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Litzenberger earned a B.A. from Middlebury College, and M.S. from the
United States Army War College. He speaks French, Russian, Serbian,
and Bulgarian.

During the October 4, 2018, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
hearing, Litzenberger came under intense scrutiny. The ANCA reported
that Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) referred to Azeri President Ilham
Aliyev’s “bellicose rhetoric and sporadic outbursts of violence,” when
pressing Litzenberger about Azerbaijan’s violent strategies.
Litzenberger responded that he would urge the Azerbaijani government
to step back from behaviors that would disrupt the line of contact in
the Artsakh conflict. He also stated that the United States is working
along three lines—the non-use of force, respect for territorial
integrity, and the right to self-determination.

In addition, Litzenberger referred to the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, which condemns “any
violence and any threat of the use of violence along the line of
contact” without specifically citing Azerbaijan’s attacks.

During the hearing, Sen. Menendez inquired whether providing weapons
to Azerbaijan should be curtailed based on its human rights
violations. Litzenberger responded that the State Department will be
careful to ensure its decisions do not undermine efforts to reach a
peaceful settlement of the Artsakh conflict. He also mentioned an
increased focus on Azerbaijani training in human rights.

Following the hearing, both Sen. Menendez and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)
submitted written questions to Litzenberger. At the request of Sen.
Menendez, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee postponed
consideration of Litzenberger’s nomination to an unspecified date.
Both Senators may have additional written questions to the nominee as
a result of their concerns at National Security Advisor John Bolton’s
offer to sell weapons to Armenia and Azerbaijan during his late
October trip to the Caucasus.

Litzenberger was the only one of 19 ambassadorial nominations to be
postponed, very likely until next year, when the Committee will hold
its next business meeting.

ANCA’s Hamparian welcomed Litzenberger’s delay giving the Senators the
“opportunity for more careful Congressional oversight of our country’s
increasingly challenging bilateral ties with Azerbaijan’s aggressive
and abusive Aliyev regime, particularly in light of National Security
Advisor John Bolton’s controversial suggestion that the U.S. start
selling arms to Baku.”

 Hamparian went on to assert: “We join with our Senate friends in
seeking greater clarity on this point, and, more generally, regarding
the Administration’s policy on Aliyev’s worsening pattern of
aggression against Artsakh and Armenia, incitement of hatred against
all Armenians, unapologetic blacklisting of U.S. legislators,
obstruction of the Royce-Engel peace proposals, threats to shoot down
civilian aircraft, the destruction of the Djulfa cemetery and other
Christian heritage sites, and—of course—his severe crackdown against
domestic dissidents and ethnic-religious minorities.”

Azerbaijan’s Turan news Agency reported the news about the delay of
the confirmation of the US Ambassador to Baku. Surprisingly, Turan
speculated that Pres. Trump may make a recess appointment taking
advantage of the absence of Senate sessions in December, which would
mean that the President could appoint Litzenberger as Ambassador to
Azerbaijan without Senate confirmation.

Readers may recall that Pres. Obama made such a recess appointment in
the case of Matt Bryza dispatching him as Ambassador to Azerbaijan,
after Sen. Menendez twice blocked his confirmation. Bryza could only
serve in Baku for 12 months before being forced to return to
Washington, after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee refused to
confirm his nomination.

In the case of Matt Bryza, the Armenian-American community had a good
reason to object to his nominations as he had a serious bias against
Armenia and favored Azerbaijan and Turkey. However, Litzenberger does
not seem to have such biases and there is nothing personal against
him. Delaying his nomination is simply a means to ensure that he would
defend human rights in Azerbaijan and would urge the Aliyev regime to
be less bellicose in the Artsakh conflict. Litzenberger’s delay would
also send a message to John Bolton that the Senate does not welcome
his offer to sell weapons to Azerbaijan.

The delay of the Ambassador’s Senate confirmation would serve the
additional aim of upsetting the Aliyev regime by prolonging the
lengthy absence of a U.S. Ambassador to Baku, causing an irritation in
Azerbaijan-United States relations.

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

2-         England: Derby City Council Recognizes Armenian Genocide

(The California Courier)—On Nov 21, 2018, Derby City council became
the first city council in England to recognize The Armenian Genocide.

Dr. Ara Nahabedian attended the council meeting and witnessed this
historic motion adopted unanimously by the full city council of Derby.

British citizen Russell Pollard proposed the resolution some nine
years ago to the Derby City Council, after visiting Armenia and
Artsakh. While visiting Dzidzernagapert, he discovered that the UK
does not recognize the Armenian Genocide. He also visited Yerablur, a
tribute to the fallen soldiers of the Artsakh war in the 1990s.

“I returned to England, and I felt that Armenia, for me, was
‘unfinished business’—I wanted to visit Artsakh, and so returned the
following May. From that point, and during 15 further visits, I met
many people in Armenia, in Artsakh, and Armenians in the UK. Some, who
will be friends forever, have allowed me to truly understand life in
Armenia and Artsakh. But not as a tourist—something more humanitarian,
and more purposeful,” said Pollard in his website Artsakh.org.uk.
Pollard runs his website in cooperation with Susanna Petrosyan of the
Artsakh Youth Development Center (AYDC), which supports Pollard with
research; assistance with identifying and meeting contacts; and
translation

He began to write articles, created the Artsakh website, gave
presentations. And in so doing, he was awarded a medal by the Prime
Minister of Artsakh—while being blacklisted by Azerbaijan. “I wanted
to tell non-Armenians—I wanted to spread the word about how the people
of Artsakh were and are under continual threat and that this is a
legacy of the Armenian Genocide of 1915….and the fact that it remains
unrecognized is part of maintaining this genocidal opportunity for
Azerbaijan—a close ally of Turkey.”

Pollard lives in Derby, a small city of 250,000 people in the center
of England. It has a very diverse population speaking nearly 200
different languages, a great history, and great people—but there is no
Armenian community.

In 2015, Pollard spoke about the Armenian Genocide during a Holocaust
Memorial Day (HMD) commemoration. According to Pollard, the Turkish
government had written to the Mayor of Derby prior to the event in
order to dissuade him from making this presentation. Pollard remained
undeterred and has spoken every year since then at the commemoration
about the Armenian Genocide.

Derby City Council is the local government for Derby. It sits directly
below the UK Government—it represents the people through 51 elected
Councillors. They have the power to make formal resolutions on behalf
of the people of the City.

The HMD committee started discussions with the Council to support a
Recognition motion earlier this year. “Initially it fell on deaf
ears—sometimes with these matters it is about timing—so we waited. A
breakthrough was made just a few months ago, and I drafted a motion;
it was confirmed that it would be tabled. On November 21, the Full
Council unanimously agreed to adopt this motion thus making Derby the
first City in England to formally recognize the Armenian Genocide. It
is a proud day for this City that it did so, to make a stand on simple
humanitarian grounds.” said Pollard. “Hopefully, in the future, the
Armenian world will recognize Derby as a place that did the right
thing; a City that held out a hand across the oceans to those people
in Armenia, in Artsakh, and throughout the Diaspora…to say, we hear
your pain, we see it, we feel it…and we are with you, and stand by
you, and with you!”

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

3 –        Commentary: Fabulous, albeit Complete Failure

            By Claude Mutafian

A distinguished art historian and well-known specialist of Byzantium,
Mrs. Helen Evans has been working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
for many years. Among the exhibitions she has organized, let us
mention ‘The Glory of Byzantium (843-1261)’ in 1997 and ‘Byzantium:
Faith and Power (1261-1557)’ in 2004. Such topics involved necessarily
neighboring Armenia, and Mrs. Evans’ growing interest for Armenian art
was finally materialized by the present widely publicized exhibition
called ‘Armenia!’, where the curious exclamation mark may reflect some
kind of admiration. More important is the absence of any mention of
period in the title, contrary to the two abovementioned Byzantine
exhibitions. At first glance, it suggests that the exhibition should
cover the three millennia of Armenian history, or at least, if one
decides to exclude Urartu, the period from 500 B.C. to our days. This
is not the case: it begins at the dawn of the 4th century, with the
Christianization of Armenia, and ignores totally one millennium of
pagan Armenia. As an example, the absence of the name of the most
famous of all Armenian kings, Tigranes the Great (1st century B.C.),
in an exhibition called ‘Armenia!’ looks strange, if not unacceptable.
It would have been fair to call the exhibition ‘Christian Armenia!’,
and briefly explain on an introductory panel that Armenia did exist
long before, and that Christianization opened a new artistic era. Such
was the case of the exhibition properly called ‘Armenia Sacra’ in
Paris (Musée du Louvre, 2007).

The quality of the various items displayed here is properly amazing.
The exhibition succeeded in obtaining some incredibly rich loans, some
of them having systematically been refused before, as a manuscript of
the greatest Armenian miniaturist, T’oros Roslin (13th century), lent
by the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Let us also mention the
fabulous wooden door of the Mush Surb Karapet monastery, now kept in a
private collection, so that this is probably a unique opportunity to
admire it.

Many other similar examples can be given, but an exhibition is not a
mere collection of masterpieces, it has to be a pedagogical tool and
lead the visitor into a world essentially unknown, helping him to
discover it. Unfortunately, this is not the case for ‘Armenia!’ First
of all, the absence of any map, from the very beginning to the end, is
amazing. Does everyone know what and where Armenia is? Even for those
who know it, where are Cilicia, Vaspurakan, Sevan, Siwnik’, and so on?
These provinces remain purely abstract names. Even in the last
section, dedicated to the trade routes, not a single itinerary is
explicitly shown. As for the catalogue, it includes, at the very
beginning (p. 24-25), a single map, which stretches from Eastern
America to Japan: Armenia is so tiny that the names of dozens of
cities and monasteries are illegible, the provinces being totally
omitted!

This huge gap could have been, at least partly, compensated by some
adequate historical explanations, but these are absent from the
exhibition, as well as from the catalogue. A glance to the list of the
contributors of this catalogue shows that it involves exclusively art
historians; there is practically not a single historian in spite of
the fact that the evolution of art cannot be dissociated from the
historical frame.

As a first consequence of this absence of historical control,
precision is often lacking and mistakes are frequent. Let us quote a
few of them:

– After 387, Armenia was not “made a vassal state of Iran”; it was
divided between Byzantium and Persia (p. 209)

– The dates of the historian Movses Khorenatsi are still
controversial, between the 5th and the 8th or even 9th century: the
precise dates “(410-490)” assigned here make no sense (p. 29)

– The annexion of Kars took place in 1065, not in “1054” (p. 34)

– The mother of Queen Melisende was not from “Edessa,” but from Melitene (p. 35)

– The first husband of Zabel was not “deposed,” but put to death (p. 35, 130)

– King Levon V was not “buried” in Saint-Denis – where his tomb stone
was transferred in the 19th century – but in the Celestins’ convent
(p. 36)

– The name “Armenia Maritima” for the Crimean coast is a myth (p. 88)

– This southern coast of Crimea was in the hand of the Genovese alone,
not the “Venetians and Genovese” (p. 164)

– The foundation of the Armenian Patriarchate in 1461 by sultan Mehmed
II and the bishop of Bursa is purely mythic (p. 172, 253)

– The patriarch of Jerusalem was not at all restricted “on a local
level” (p. 233)

The exhibition captions and the catalogue notices are full of
interesting details concerning the description of the objects, but
they generally omit the historical context in full. For example, let
us have a look to the section dealing with Armenians in Italy (p.
164): when, why, how did they settle there? No answer. Even worse for
Jerusalem (p. 218), where the foundation of the Patriarchate is
totally ignored and the famous mosaics quoted without any
reproduction—the only picture being the interior of the cathedral. As
for the famous map of K’eomiwrchean (1691), why do neither the caption
nor the article (p. 301) mention its amazing story: it was considered
as lost until its discovery by chance in Bologna three centuries
later! Let us add that usually a catalogue recalls, for each object,
the former exhibitions where it has been already displayed: no such
precision is given here for any of them.

The name “Kingdom of Cilicia” is a widespread mistake all over the
exhibition and the catalogue. Such a kingdom has never existed: there
has been in Cilicia a “Kingdom of Armenia,” so called by the Armenians
as well as all their neighbors (Arabs, Greeks, Franks,…). To be
geographically more precise, one may speak of “Cilician Armenia.” A
few rooms away from ‘Armenia!’, the Museum has a permanent showcase
containing some silver coins from that kingdom, where one can read
explicitly “King of Armenia.” Why didn’t the exhibition display some
of these coins?

As for the birth of this last Kingdom of Armenia far away from the
motherland, there is a more serious problem. One reads that at some
moment “Armenians moved into Cilicia” (p. 34), without any
explanation. Were they tourists? The reason given elsewhere, “the
Byzantine defeat at the battle of Manzikert” (p. 134), is absurd: that
battle took place in 1071 between Byzantines and Seljuk Turks, it did
not involve the Armenians. The real reason has to be found somewhat
earlier, when these same Seljuk Turks captured Ani in 1064. Why is
this event carefully ignored here, as it had been on p. 31, where one
can read, without any explanation, that the monuments of Ani “stand
even now in ruins”? These ruins are “on the modern closed border
between the Turkish and Armenian Republics” (p. 66). On which side?
And why is this border “closed”? While it is correctly recalled that
the Kingdom of Cilician Armenia was destroyed by the Mamluks in 1375
(p. 164), why aren’t the Turks mentioned for the destruction of the
Bagratid Kingdom of Ani in 1064? Anyway, the word ‘Turks’ is totally
absent of the catalogue, as one can check it in the index. Is it by
chance?

These questions lead us to some more political considerations. As we
have seen, the exhibition begins with the Christianization of
Armenia—which would make sense if it were explicit. It ends with the
18th century, allowing to omit the tragic fate of the Armenians from
the 19th century on, and particularly the genocide.

Like the silence about the fate of Ani, several other indications are
somewhat puzzling.

– One speaks of the “monastery of the Holy Apostles in Mush” (p. 97)
without specifying that it was destroyed by the Turks during the 20th
century.

– Among the jewels of this exhibition, one has already mentioned the
carved door of the Surb Karapet monastery, also in Mush (p. 109). How
did this door survive the destruction of the whole monument? Why isn’t
there a single word about that? Maybe because any answer would
necessarily include the word ‘genocide.’

– The only explicit mention of depravity concerns the cemetery of
khachkars of Julfa, in Nakhchivan. One reads (p. 91) that they “were
deliberately destroyed in the 1990s, in an attempt to eliminate any
trace of Armenian presence from the region”. Although the date is
wrong—it took place in 2005—there is at least a correct mention. But
why isn’t the name of Azerbaijan, the author of this crime, mentioned?

– This province of Nakhchivan counted many monasteries, which had been
photographed before their complete destruction by Azerbaijan. There is
not a single trace of any of them, neither in the exhibition nor in
the catalogue. Is it in order to avoid putting that State in
accusation?

– Monuments of Lori, Siwnik’ or Vaspurakan are largely mentioned, but
those of Arts’akh-Karabagh, which are not less important, are
practically absent, in particular the famous monastery of Gandzasar,
briefly mentioned only once (p. 178), which did not deserve any
picture or commentary. Is that in order to avoid speaking of
Azerbaijan’s claims?

In one word, as in each case, it is obvious that Turks and Azeris were
aware of that exhibition from the very beginning. Did they make
pressure on the authorities in order to avoid the mention of anything
that could recall their criminal policy towards Armenians? Let us
consider another hypothesis: the friendly relations of the United
States towards these ‘Republics’ may have resulted in an automatic
censorship by the Museum authorities themselves.

Finally, the incredible absence of any map may enter very well in such
a frame. Maps are potentially dangerous: they suppose borders,
presence of populations, leading one to ask why the Armenians, so
numerous and active in such or such area, have totally disappeared
there. The answer has to come from Ankara and Baku.

This exhibition is included in the Museum entrance ticket, so that a
lot of people pass through it. I paid attention to these visitors: it
was obvious that they were delighted by the beauty of what they saw,
but also obvious that they did not understand anything of the context.
What a waste! Armenia has still to wait…

As a conclusion, one can say that ‘Armenia !’ is a fabulous display of
Christian Armenian art until the 18th century, but that as an Armenian
exhibition it is a complete failure, unworthy of an institution as
famous as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Claude Mutafian is a mathematician and historian specializing in
Armenian history.

This article appeared in Armeniaca on December 1, 2018.
***************************************************************************************************

4 –        Commentary: We, as a people, are better than that

            By Sona Hamalian

[Ed.: On November 13, at 12:55 a.m., a post was made using Facebook by
the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia, in which Minister
of Culture Lilit Makunts wrote: “I announce the verbal warning to
deputy director of the Alexander Spendiaryan National Academic Theater
of Opera and Ballet Karine Kirakosyan for engaging in political
activities during working hours, and propagandizing and placing
psychological pressure on employees. I urge Mr. Orbelian, the Director
of the Opera, to adhere strictly to this law and not go beyond the
scope of his defined powers and functions. Otherwise severe
administrative measures will be applied. This warning is to be taken
into consideration by all those who fall under the purview of the
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia.” This commentary is in
reference to that post.]

What is wrong with us?

We Armenians love to talk about how deep the roots of our nation go,
yet we often display a glaring lack of farsightedness, as an
inextricable attribute of the wisdom of an ancient people. We pride
ourselves on what we consider the inherent nobility of our nation, as
expressed through values such as hospitality, inclusiveness, and
generosity of spirit, yet we often act in utter disregard of these
values, driven by greed and the petty exigencies of the ego. And we
love screaming at the top of our lungs that nothing can suppress our
creative spirit, even in times of extreme collective hardship, yet far
too often we ignore, ostracize, or downright destroy our most
accomplished, most visionary artists.

Case in point: in the past few weeks, a nasty smear campaign was
unleashed in Yerevan, accompanied by threats both obvious and implied,
with the express purpose of ruining just such an artist.

The story might sound banal, even boring: a certain government
official is seeking to have the director of a major cultural
institution removed from his post, and has come up with a bunch of
fabrications to get the ball rolling—with no due process whatsoever,
and relying strictly on innuendo and threats.

This is the type of clique intrigue that can take place on any given
day, anywhere in the world, whether in governance, public
institutions, or commerce. In fact, it’s so prevalent that we might
have become rather desensitized to it. What’s unique to the case I
refer to is that the government official in question is Lilit Makunts,
the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Armenia—yes, the same
republic which pulled off a bloodless revolution only months ago, and
whose new government has inspired not just our homeland, but the
entire Armenian community of the world, with an exhilarating prospect
for genuine pluralism, transparency, accountability, and, above all,
fairness. What’s equally unique to this case is that the artist whom
the Minister is targeting happens to be one of the most accomplished
and dedicated Armenian artists alive, and one who almost
single-handedly has brought about the rebirth of a cherished national
treasure. That artist is Constantine Orbelian, the Artistic and
General Director of the Yerevan Opera House.

Minister Makunts launched her smear campaign with a shocking post on
the Ministry’s Facebook Page. She was accusing the executive personnel
of the Yerevan Opera House of holding political-agitation meetings at
the theater, and warned that talking about or discussing politics of
any kind is strictly forbidden by law, that it’s a prosecutable
offense. In the post she warns not only the Opera House staff, but,
the staff of any theater or state organization. Is Makunts the
Minister of Culture of Armenia or the Minister of Propaganda of a long
lost Soviet Republic?

I find the Minister’s unsubstantiated accusations and threats to be
disturbing on many levels, and not just concerning Maestro Orbelian
and his colleagues. Her overarching message couldn’t be clearer. In a
flagrant nod to Stalinism, she was telling everyone to keep quiet, to
refrain from voicing political opinions. She was, in effect, issuing a
warning against democratic processes and thought. Such behavior, so
profoundly unbecoming of a government official of our
post-velvet-revolution space, should make any concerned Armenian
wonder: is free speech already cancelled? Is free thought here under
fire? How on Earth can a discussion about politics or politicians be
deemed political “agitation?” And who in a democracy, after all, gets
to decide what is allowed and what isn’t?

I don’t know what degree of small-mindedness and just plain ignorance
it would take for someone—a Minister of Culture no less—to engage in
the type of Byzantine machination that has shown its ugly face in
Yerevan in the past few weeks. What I do know is that the Cultural
community is deeply disappointed in her. This would spell a dangerous
setback for democracy in Armenia. It would mean we’re not exactly an
open, fair, and pluralistic society. It would also mean we don’t
really care that a globally-renowned artist such as Orbelian has
helped the Yerevan Opera House burgeon like never before, by
empowering it to stage extraordinary productions in Armenia and
abroad; and that he has helped fund these efforts with his own
personal resources, again and again, because nothing excites him more
than having the Yerevan Opera House shine on the world stage, as a hub
for artistic excellence. And it would mean, by extension, that we
Armenians, you and I, don’t care much about the continued vibrancy of
our cultural institutions, since, apparently, anyone in a position of
power can, on a whim, have someone removed from a post, and do so with
the tacit consent of her government, and by echoing a totalitarian
past which our homeland fought so very hard to overcome. What, then,
is wrong with us? I hope nothing. It is my sincere wish, and no doubt
the wish of hundreds of thousands of Armenians across the globe who
revere Maestro Orbelian’s talent and work, that the campaign against
him as well as our freedom of speech and thought, will duly be exposed
for what it is, and that we, as a people, will have plenty of reason
to say that we’re better than that.

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

5-         The women who remove deadly landmines

            By Elizabeth Sulis Kim

(Positive News)—London’s Metropolitan police and the UK Supreme Court
both appointed a woman in their leading role for the first time in
2017. Meanwhile in the US midwest, many men who once worked in
manufacturing are finding new careers in healthcare. While gender
stereotypes for many roles persist, the unwritten rules are breaking
down. What if all jobs went to the person best suited to them?

War is over in this landlocked, mountainous territory, but landmines
and unexploded ordnance still threaten lives and livelihoods. This is
Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan,
where all-out conflict ended in 1994 but left its legacy beneath the
soil’s surface. Those at The Halo Trust, a mine clearance
organisation, aim to clear all of the mines there by 2020, both to
prevent further casualties and to make the land economically viable.

Female de-miners began working for the non-profit in 2015. It was a
first in this patriarchal culture, where sex-selective abortions are
common and where many hold the belief that a woman’s place is in the
home. Now, 11 women are working as de-miners in the region and more
are being trained in a bid to reach the 2020 target. Christine
Kachataryan was a secretary and accountant at a local school before
she became a de-miner. “My husband was very worried for me and didn’t
want me to do it,” says the 38-year-old mother-of-three. “But
landmines have affected everyone in our communities, and I wanted to
do something to help. I was nervous at first—I’d heard the job was too
dangerous for a woman—but our training taught us how to do the work
safely.” She says the role is fulfilling, adding that her husband and
family are proud of her now.

Fellow de-miner Lucine Asryan notes that her friends often ask: “Why
do you want to be a de-miner, it’s a man’s job?” But her motivation is
deeply personal: her uncle was killed by a mine and she began training
soon after.

Despite stereotypes and stigma, the female de-miners of
Nagorno-Karabakh are proud not to fall behind their male counterparts.
“Women can actually do this job better than men because they are more
detail-oriented, more responsible —and more careful,” says Sirun
Ohanyan, who left a career in teaching to do the job.

“Men and women can do the same work, and our male colleagues are
respectful,” she adds. Being mothers, many of the women say that being
away from their children is the hardest part of their job. “My kids
miss me,” says mother-of-five Inga Avanesyan, “but I dedicate the
entire weekend to them”.

Then there’s battling the elements: extremely cold winters, and long
hours under the baking summer sun. But the end is in sight. Since
2010, an estimated 90 percent of this region’s minefields have been
cleared. As well as empowering themselves by taking on the work, the
female de-miners of Nagorno-Karabakh look forward to a safer future,
where their children will be able to run in the fields freely. Says
Kachataryan: “When the mines are cleared, life here will become safer
and people will live without fear.”

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

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Verelq: Pre-election programs. ի՞նչ տեսլականներ ունեն քաղաքական ուժերը

Tatoyan Vazgen
  • 28.11.2018

    •  

  • Armenia:

    •  

  • arm

1
 51

11 political forces have published their pre-election programs for the extraordinary RA NA elections, which they should present to RA citizens and debate with their competitors over the next two weeks.


The program of the Republican Party of Armenia was fully presented on their pre-election website. According to the preface, the RPA emphasizes that after the change of power, the new government not only does not fulfill the promises made to the people, not only does not ensure the development of Armenia’s economy, the increase in the level of well-being of compatriots, does not strengthen the security of Armenia and Artsakh and the international ranking of our country, but also causes many new concerns and aggravates the situation inside and around Armenia with its incompetent activities.


“In the current situation, we consider it our political and civic duty to voice our concerns, to speak directly and directly about the mistakes and omissions of the new government, which can become fatal for the statehood of Armenia and the future of Artsakh,” the program states. RPA lists why they should be elected.


“We have history, knowledge and experience, we know and have accepted our mistakes, we are ready to serve the Motherland.”


In the pre-election program “My Step” alliance states that in the next five years their activities will be aimed at realizing an economic revolution, to achieve which the continuous increase in the security level of RA and the Republic of Artsakh, the international recognition of Artsakh’s right to self-determination, the encouragement of work and investments, overcoming poverty through work and education, ensuring the rule of law, the continuous increase in welfare and the continuous increase in the efficiency of public spending are of key importance.


The alliance’s pre-election program states that not only the continuous increase in the combat capability of the Armed Forces, special services and the diplomatic corps, but also the growth of the population of Armenia, is of primary importance for the national security of the Republic of Armenia, according to which the population of the Republic of Armenia should double in the next 20 years. “My step” considers the cessation of visible emigration from RA, the initiation of a smooth process of repatriation of Armenians representing the old and new diaspora to RA, and the increase in birth rate as the most important means of solving this problem.


The pre-election program of the “My Step” alliance, which is considered the favorite of the election campaign, states that the implementation of any program for the settlement of the Artsakh issue is possible only with the restoration of the status of Artsakh as a full party to the negotiations, without whose consent any option for the settlement of the issue cannot be considered de jure.


In the field of foreign policy, the steps of “My step” will be aimed at establishing neighborly, mutually beneficial relations with all states and giving a new breath.


“The basis of our steps in the implementation of foreign policy will be the protection of the collective interest of the people of Armenia, Diaspora Armenians, as well as the protection of the rights and interests of each individual citizen and legal entity. The international reputation of Armenia and any achievement in the international arena belongs to the citizen of the Republic of Armenia, and the dignity of the Armenian in relations with other peoples and the pride for his country will be the overarching goal of all our steps,” says the “My Step” program.


“Armenian Revolutionary Federation” in the program, it emphasizes that it is a pan-Armenian force, has its own vision of the future, has a clear value system derived from the essence of the people, has an organizational structure and control mechanism to realize its goals.


“Prosperous Armenia” the party presented an election program including 36 steps, where it is stated that the political revolution should be followed by the economic one. 


“Bright Armenia” The party’s program states that the goal of the LAP is to build a progressive, modern political system that contributes to the dynamic development of society in RA, to contribute to the development of effective directions of public policy expressing the interests of citizens, the formation of democratic representative institutions and the provision of prerequisites for their development.


“Bright Armenia” party will promote, initiate and implement reforms with its flexibility aimed at:


1. ensuring the necessary prerequisites for the establishment of a social, legal and democratic state,
2. to the stable, proportionate development of the state and society, as well as civil society and its separate elements,
3. for the individual, through self-realization and development, to ensure the foundations of a happy life,
the development and application of a strategy with operational, systematic and consolidated principles in relation to security issues,
4. the development and implementation of the components of the national value system, including culture, traditions, language thinking, preservation and development of cultural heritage,
to the recovery of the economic system through the introduction and implementation of mechanisms with liberal ideas,
5. the study of socio-economic problems in the country and the introduction of new mechanisms for solving them,
6. the elimination of the shadow economy and the implementation of an effective anti-monopoly policy,
7. the creation of a competitive economic system and the necessary environment for job creation,
8. overcoming poverty and reducing social polarization,
development and implementation of demographic policy (birth rate increase, creation of necessary conditions for immigration and reduction of emigration).


“we” He has not yet published the full pre-election program of the alliance, but before that he announced at the press conference that he considers himself an alternative to the “My Step” alliance in terms of foreign policy in the upcoming elections. The alliance plans to make significant changes in foreign policy.


“Citizen’s Decision” the social-democratic party has not announced an election program yet, despite the start of the campaign, but until then they emphasize that the citizen of Armenia should not be the consumer of politics. The citizen of Armenia should be the one who decides and dictates the policy.


Christian-folk revival the party did not publish its pre-election program, but instead presented it at the convened press conference. “We offer a different model of RA economic development: moderate liberalism. We should be able to protect our domestic producer.” According to the Christian-People’s Revival Party, the foreign policy of the Republic of Armenia should be based exclusively on a pro-Armenian position and an Armenian-centric policy.


“The foreign policy of RA should be implemented within the framework of this logic of thinking, based on national-state interests, international law, interaction with states and international structures, alliance and neighborly relations,” the party members say.


“Sasna Tsrer” pan-Armenian party in 2018 He imagines the National Assembly formed by the extraordinary elections of December 9 as a transitional parliament, which, operating for about two years, can provide conditions and prerequisites for the creation of a national state and its rapid development.


The “National Progress” party proposes a number of changes in the education and social spheres with its pre-election program. Although the pre-election program was not announced, it was presented at the press conference. “We plan to depoliticize school management councils, and we emphasize the formation of the middle class for significant changes in the social sphere. The motto of our party is “New situation, new solutions”.


In the political field, we are trying to advance not individuals, but ideology. We have a package of social reforms. We are trying to bring new solutions in line with the new situation,” said Hayk Grigoryan, the press spokesman of the party.


The pre-election program of “Orinats Yerkir” party consists of 50 steps. 50 steps of the pre-election program of the “Land of Laws” party that will change Armenia, 50 programs that will guarantee the development and security of our people, 50 goals that will ensure law, justice and well-being,” the OEK program states before moving on to the foundations.

Armenia: Pashinyan says issue of new CSTO chief is "non-essential"

Tatoyan Vazgen
PanArmenian, Armenia
Nov 30 2018
– 12:31 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – The issue of electing a new Secretary General for the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is not the most essential one, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a campaign rally in Sevan on Thursday, November 29.

“The issue of the CSTO Secretary General is a very small and non-essential one. Questions discussed in that context are more important. We will constantly defend the interests of Armenia and Artsakh,” Pashinyan said.

He said Armenia has not damaged relations with any of the CSTO member states but has instead noted “the bad and discredited situation it has inherited in this establishment and not only.”

“Unlike previous authorities we are not going to remain silent and put up with the situation,” the acting PM told supporters.

“We prioritize the specification of our commitments in the CSTO before our allies and theirs before us. We raise these issues for developing relations with our partners. If we do not address the existing issues, the situation will deteriorate paving the way for more and more issues.”

The CSTO Collective Security Council relieved Armenia’s Yuri Khachaturov of his duties as the organization’s secretary general in late October.

On July 26, Armenia’s Special Investigative Service accused Khachaturov of overthrowing the constitutional order in 2008 and requested his arrest. Khachaturov, who was the Commander of the Armenian Armed Forces’ Yerevan Garrison back in 2008, pleaded not guilty. On July 28, the Yerevan City Court of General Jurisdiction released him on his own recognizance and a bail of about $10,000.