Author: Vanyan Gary

The ‪‎EU‬–‪Armenia‬ Friendship Group in the ‪European‬ ‪Parliament‬ has issued a statement on ‪Karabakh‬ escalation:

The bloody incidents, which erupted along the frontiers of ‪Azerbaijan‬ and‪ ‎NagornoKarabakh‬, on 2 April, 2016, constitute developments that can lead to a wider conflict and blow up the ‪Caucasus‬ region.

It is obvious that the escalation of the crisis puts stability and peace at a high risk. The EU and the international community in general bear their own responsibility since, for many years, they underestimated how dangerous the dormant conflict in Nagorno Karabakh is. Therefore, the EU should take initiatives and diplomatic actions with the aim of mobilizing the international community and thus prevent a further escalation of the crisis.

The current developments, with more than 36 soldiers and civilians from both sides losing their lives, come to prove the need for a comprehensive solution based on the right to self – determination. If international community and particularly the EU do not intensify their efforts towards a democratic solution, a new catastrophic war is to come.

The Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) has initiated an online action portal – – where supporters of Karabakh peace can contact US government officials to take immediate action to stop President Aliyev’s latest deadly anti-Armenian attacks.

Grassroots action is directed to President Obama, Vice-President Biden, Congressional leaders and the OSCE Minsk Group’s Karabakh negotiators to publicly and unequivocally condemn Azerbaijani aggression and take concrete steps to ensure a lasting peace in the region which respects the right to self-determination and freedom of the people of Nagorno Karabakh.  “Unless stopped, President Aliyev will act upon his oft-stated threats to start a full-scale Caucasus war – one that will visit vast death and destruction upon all the peoples of the region, very likely leading to a wider and even more dangerous conflict,” stresses the message to U.S. officials.

The letter campaign is paired with a social media effort urging US leaders to #StopAliyev.

On April 2nd, Azerbaijani forces launched a wide-scale attack along the full-length of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic border, specifically targeting civilian populations with heavy artillery, mortar and gunfire.  One Armenian child has been killed with reports of additional wounded.

The violence comes just days after President Aliyev met with U.S. Vice-President Biden and Secretary of State Kerry during the international nuclear summit held in Washington, DC.  ANCA Executive Director described Aliyev’s warm reception in Washington as giving a “green light” for these latest anti-Armenian attacks.

“Vice President Biden, in personally meeting Azerbaijani President Aliyev in this manner – without any public challenge to his escalating regional aggression and worsening domestic repression – openly emboldened his belligerence while actively undermining American efforts to keep the peace and reach a negotiated settlement,” said Hamparian. “Secretary Kerry in his public remarks with President Aliyev, regretfully, made no mention at all of any American concerns regarding President Aliyev’s threats and acts of violence or his crackdown on domestic dissent. There has, as well, been no mention, in the public record, of the life-saving Royce-Engel peace proposals that the State Department has publicly supported.”

President Serzh Sargsyan has sent a telegram of condolences to Charles Michel, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Belgium, over the blasts in Brussels airport and metro stations this morning that claimed tens of innocent lives, President’s Press Office reports.

“At this difficult moment I offer my condolences and support to you, the friendly people of Belgium and the relatives of the victims, wishing them strength of spirit and patience,” the President said.

“Armenia strongly condemns any expression of terrorism and is committed to contributing to the international struggle against that evil,” the President’s message reads.

Lusine Avanesyan
Public Radio of Armenia
Stepanakert

“Artsakh is not only the stronghold of Armenia, but also of Europe,” member of the Flemish Parliament Karim Van Overmeire said in Stepanakert.

A delegation of Flemish MPs headed by Karl Vanlouwe, are in Artsakh for a two-day visit.

Within the framework of a two-day visit to Artsakh, members of the delegation visited the Stepanakert memorial, held meetings at the National Assembly and were hosted by Head of the Artsakh Diocese, Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan. Later today they are expected to meet with NKR President Bako Sahakyan. The delegation is accompanied by EAFJD President Kaspar Karampetian and Armenian MP Tevan Poghosyan.

During a meeting at the National Assembly today the Flemmish MPs referred to the situation in the Middle East, the new wave of violence against Christians, which, Karim Van Overmeire said, reminds of the Armenian Genocide.

Speaker of the NKR National Assembly Ashot Ghulyan said “people in Artsakh strongly believe that democracy is the basis of freedom, justice and peace; those were the principles leading up to the declaration of independence and remain the guidelines for the Artsakh authorities today.”

Referring to the preservation of the national identity of Artsakh and the peoples’ struggle, Karl Vanlouwe, First Vice President of the Belgian Senate, said: “I cannot compare the Flemish peaceful struggle for identity with the complex situation created in Nagorno Karabakh. It is hard to imagine that such a meeting would be organized around thirty years ago only because there was a war going on in here.”

Ward Kennes noted in his speech that they rely upon the OSCE Minsk Group and hope the negotiations under their auspices will result in a stable and lasting solution.

The Flemish and Artsakh MPs discussed the perspectives of collaboration in the fields of education and science, as well as decentralized cooperation.

Poland has accused Russia of downing a Polish presidential jet in 2010 in what it called an act of “terrorism,” sparking an immediate retort on Monday from Moscow, AFP reports.

“We can say that we were the first great victim of the terrorism we now see playing out before our eyes,” Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said, according to a transcript released Monday of a weekend university lecture.

The crash killed then president Lech Kaczynski and 95 other mostly senior officials in what is regarded as Poland’s worst peacetime disaster.

The minister also alleged the crash was orchestrated in reaction to Poland’s 2009 request to define as “genocide” the World War II Soviet massacre of Polish officers in Russia’s western Katyn forest.

“There is no doubt about the fact that what happened … was meant to deprive Poland of a leadership that was moving our nation toward independence,” Macierewicz added.

Moscow responded immediately to the minister’s allegations, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling them “unfounded, biased and having nothing to do with real circumstances of this plane crash.”

A member of the Civic Platform opposition party, Rafal Trzaskowski, also dismissed Macierewicz’s allegations as “terrifying”.

“If the defense minister in some way accuses a state of terrorism, we can only be terrified, because one does not leave acts of terrorism without a response,” the former deputy foreign minister told reporters.

The crash occurred as a Polish state delegation was en route to memorial ceremonies in Russia’s Katyn forest for thousands of Polish army officers killed by the Soviet secret police in 1940, a massacre the Kremlin denied until 1990.

The Georgia State Senate has passed S.R.991,  resolution marking April 2016 as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month, the Armenian Assembly of America reports.

The full text of the resolution is provided below: 

1 Recognizing the month of April, 2016, as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month at the

2 Capitol; and for other purposes.

3 WHEREAS, the goal of Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month is to educate the public

4 about the history of previous and contemporary genocides; how to advocate against future

5 genocides; to focus attention on the specter of genocide so that policies, strategies, and

6 programs geared toward combating the evils of genocide can be developed; and to

7 commemorate the victims of genocide; and

8 WHEREAS, during World War II, a Polish lawyer of Jewish decent, Raphael Lemkin,

9 coined the term “genocide” to describe the coordinated plan of actions aimed at the

10 destruction of essential foundations of the life of certain groups with the aim of annihilating

11 a group itself by disintegrating a group’s social institutions, culture, language, national or

12 ethnic identities, religion, and economic existence while also destroying the personal

13 security, liberty, health, and dignity, as well as the lives, of individuals belonging to the

14 group; and

15 WHEREAS, throughout history, numerous genocides originated or stemmed from events that

16 occurred in April, and as a result, many institutions around the world have designated April

17 to be a month of genocide prevention and awareness; and

18 WHEREAS, when coining the term “genocide,” Raphael Lemkin was moved to investigate

19 the forced assimilation, deportation, and near eradication of the Armenian population and

20 other Christian communities, beginning in April, 1915, prompting Adolf Hitler to remark in

21 1939, “Who after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”; and

22 WHEREAS, in April of 1933, the Nazis issued a decree preparing the way for the “Final

23 Solution” defining non-Aryans as “anyone descended from non-Aryan, especially Jewish,

24 parents or grandparents”; and

25 WHEREAS, in 1975, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took power in Cambodia, conducting

26 widespread killings of people belonging to specific groups, as well as an involuntary

27 relocation of all city dwellers to the countryside for forced labor in squalid conditions,

28 resulting in famine and starvation which turned the countryside into killing fields; these acts

29 resulted in the deaths of 2 million people; and

30 WHEREAS, the 1992-1995 siege of Sarajevo, Srebrenica, and other cities in Bosnia and

31 Herzegovina, which ultimately led to the deaths of more than 200,000 Bosniaks, or Bosnian

32 Muslims; and

33 WHEREAS, the Al-Anfal Campaign (1984-1988), under the leadership of Saddam Hussein,

34 sought to destroy and depopulate the Kurdistan region in northern Iraq and notoriously used

35 chemical weapons to that end, which caused the deaths of over 180,000 Kurds and others,

36 the destruction of more than 4,500 villages (90 percent of villages in the region), and resulted

37 in creating millions of refugees and internally displaced persons; and

38 WHEREAS, in April of 1994, the Rwandan president’s airplane was shot down, which led

39 to the slaying of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by the Interhamwe over the next three

40 months; and

41 WHEREAS, in April of 2003, the displacement and killing of Darfurians began by the

42 government of Sudan, and led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and the displacement of

43 millions, which continues unabated to this day; and

44 WHEREAS, DAESH, the so-called Islamic State, has forcefully caused the civilian

45 population of the Ezidi-Kurdhish religious minority in Iraq and Syria, beginning in 2014

46 through the present day, to flee from their ancestral towns, villages, and holy sites as a result

47 of forced conversion, killing, kidnapping, and enslaving of their population–particularly

48 women and children. According to their records, this is the 74th genocide throughout that

49 population’s history; and

50 WHEREAS, the Genocide Prevention Task Force released its report on December of 2008

51 to spotlight genocide prevention as a national priority; and

52 WHEREAS, in 2011, the President of the United States declared the prevention of mass

53 atrocities and genocide to be a “core national security interest and core moral responsibility”

54 of the United States and ordered the creation of the Atrocities Prevention Board in 2012; and

16 LC 111 0198

55 WHEREAS, the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust is a state agency whose mission is

56 to use the lessons of the Holocaust to educate the citizens of Georgia on the consequences

57 of unchecked hate and the need for social justice, and to encourage strong moral character

58 and citizenship; and

59 WHEREAS, the Georgia Coalition to Prevent Genocide operates as a proactive group with

60 a mission to develop a permanent antigenocide constituency in Georgia, and it depends on

61 citizen support to engage elected officials at the state and national levels through advocacy

62 and action and by creating awareness within the community; and

63 WHEREAS, it is abundantly fitting and proper to recognize the contributions of the Georgia

64 Coalition to Prevent Genocide, Am Yisrael Chai, Eternal-Life Hemshech of Holocaust

65 Survivors, the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust, the Jewish Community Relations

66 Council of Atlanta, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the American Jewish

67 Committee (AJC) Atlanta Regional Office, and AJC’s ACCESS Atlanta in their efforts to

68 enhance the security and dignity of minority populations across the globe.

69 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE that the members of this body

70 recognize the month of April, 2016, as Genocide Prevention and Awareness Month at the

71 Capitol and commend the Georgia Coalition to Prevent Genocide for its dedicated efforts in

72 preventing genocide.

73 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Senate is authorized and directed

74 to make appropriate copies of this resolution available for distribution to the Georgia

75 Coalition to Prevent Genocide.

S.R. 991 was sponsored by State Senators Elena Parent, David Shafer, Renee Unterman, Joshua McKoon, Nan Orrock, and Harold Jones II.

The Hayastan All-Armenian Fund is celebrating the 24^th anniversary of its establishment today.

Ever since 1992, the organization has mobilized the worldwide Armenian community. By functioning as a catalyst for the Armenian people’s inexhaustible dedication to the strengthening of its homeland, it has built roads, water networks, schools, and hospitals, thereby reasserting our nation’s inalienable right to thrive and create on its own land.

“Today the magnificent achievements of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund continue to be a testament to national unity. The breathtaking tapestry of revitalized villages and cities throughout Armenia and Artsakh is our shared accomplishment, one which we will pass on to our children,” Hayastan Fund said in a statement.

On the occasion of Army day, a group of servicemen received high state awards and military distinction for their dedication, courage and outstanding service rendered in the course of their military duty. The award ceremony took place today at the Presidential Palace. The President of Armenia, Commander-in-Chief Serzh Sargsyan sent a congratulatory message on the occasion of Army Day and congratulated the awardees on receiving Motherland’s high awards and military ranks.

Congratulatory remarks by President Serzh Sargsyan on the occasion of Army Day

Dear Compatriots,
I cordially congratulate you on the occasion of Army Day.

This year, we will be celebrating the 25th anniversary of independence of the Republic of Armenia. It’s been a quarter of a century that we have a free and independent statehood. Throughout this time, we never doubted that our twenty-five year long journey would be possible without the Army which we created.

The Armed Forces of Armenia became the cornerstone which was laid in the foundation of our statehood. It was the dictate of the time and the region we live in. We knew all too well who we are and where we live. We are Armenians, and as one of the ancient nations of the Middle East and Western Asia, we had the millennia long experience.

Tragic events which are taking place today in the Middle East and in the areas which generally are very close to us, are painfully familiar to us and have been repeated regularly. We were the witnesses, contemporaries and chroniclers of similar events. They occurred right before our eyes in last centuries and during two millennia. Twenty-five years ago, when we assumed the responsibility for our own destiny, we were well aware that it was tantamount to entering a battlefield.

And we did. We entered the battlefield for the human and peoples’ rights, for freedom. We had already seen the smoke rising from the Armenian Church in Baku, and it was the last and most convincing sign for those who still had doubts. Later, in our days, the smoke rising from the burnt and blown up religious sites shuddered and astonished the world.

We shuddered in 1988, and the spontaneously formed self-defense units were our first steps in the struggle for survival. We also knew that the Fidayi movement would be doomed to failure, unless it became a regular army. The Armenian regular Army, our victorious Army, withstood the test of war because in those days Artsakh and Armenia, the entire Armenian nation became what a historian called the Askanazian nation, while the Holy Book calls it the Askanizian regiment, which represents the country, the nation and the armed forces.

Dear Soldiers and Officers of the Armenian Army, distinguished Veterans,

This glorious holiday is certainly a state and national holiday, but first of all it is your holiday. We trust in your dedication, in your professional skills, in your high combat spirit. We wish that from now no soldier is killed on the border. To you and our entire nation, I wish peace for our country’s freedom, for diligent work, which is a prerequisite for any progress.

Dear Awardees,

I congratulate you on the occasion of Army Day and on receiving Motherland’s high awards and distinctions.

It is thanks to you and your comrades-in-arms that the Armed Forces of Armenia are carrying out their mission, and fulfill the tasks set before them. You are doing it with honor and you are doing on a high professional level.

You are the worthy followers of those who in the fires of the heroic Artsakh war laid the foundation of our future Army. Many of them died, giving us life and freedom. Today, on this sacred day, we bow to their blessed memory. You are their worthy followers who are true to the behest of the martyrs and to the values they entrusted.

God bless the Armenian Land!
Long live the Armenian Nation and it warrior sons!

The Azerbaijani side used artillery weapons of different caliber as it fired more than 1,200 shots from weapons of different caliber in the direction of the Armenian positions over the weekend, the NKR Ministry of Defense reports.

The front divisions of the NKR Defense Army refrained from responding to the provocative actions of the rival and confidently performed their military duty all along the line of contact.