The California Courier Online, October 25, 2018
1 – Commentary
Saudi Journalist’s Murder Exploited
For Selfish Interests by World Powers
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- Pashinyan Resigns, Armenia Inches Closer To Snap Elections
3- Mightier Sword: Erdogan Jails Journalists, Saudis Murder
Khashoggi in Turkey
4 – Armenia Appoints New Ambassador to US
5 – Yerevan Named Among 10 Best Tech Cities
6- Little Manila: Gulf-based Filipinos have fallen in love with Armenia
7- Tekeyan Metro LA to Present Life of Legion Captain Jim Chankalian
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1 – Commentary
Saudi Journalist’s Murder Exploited
For Selfish Interests by World Powers
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
The heinous murder of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has
been exploited by leaders of several countries for their selfish
political and economic gains, ignoring the vile nature of the crime.
The main participants in this ugly game are Saudi Arabia, Turkey and
the United States.
On October 2, 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi citizen, visited Saudi
Arabia’s Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, to finalize his divorce
documents so he could marry his Turkish fiancée, Hatice Cengiz.
Khashoggi never left the Consulate. He was murdered and reportedly
dismembered by a special team of Saudi investigators who were sent to
Istanbul the day before, and after the killing immediately returned to
Saudi Arabia on two separate private jets.
Khashoggi, who had worked for years for the Saudi government in
important positions, left Saudi Arabia and settled in the United
States in 2017 after becoming disillusioned with Crown Prince Mohammed
bin Salman’s limitless powers. Khashoggi began writing critical
opinion columns in the Washington Post, while Saudi leaders made
several unsuccessful attempts to lure him back to his native land.
Initially, Saudi Arabia announced that Khashoggi had left its
Consulate in Istanbul within an hour or so of his arrival. However,
after leaks from the Turkish government that there was no video of
Khashoggi exiting the Consulate, the Saudi authorities changed their
story, claiming that the dissident journalist was killed during a
fistfight at the Consulate. A week later, the Saudi leaders changed
their story once again, stating that Khashoggi’s murder was
premeditated and not accidental. Saudi Arabia proceeded to fire five
security officials and arrested a dozen others, claiming that neither
King Salman nor the Crown Prince had any advance knowledge of the
murder plan. Given the fact that the Crown Prince is in total control
of the country, no one believes that he was unaware of Khashoggi’s
killing by the Kingdom’s top security and intelligence officials.
In the meantime, the Turkish government, which has been in constant
rivalry with Saudi Arabia for the dominance of the Sunni Islamic
world, has been leaking to the Turkish media drip by drip the evidence
of Khashoggi’s murder. Initially, the Turks claimed that the
information came from Khashoggi’s apple watch which had recorded his
torture and murder. When experts advised that the apple watch did not
have such a capacity, it became clear that the Turkish government used
the watch as a cover up for its secret recording devices installed
inside the Saudi Consulate.
In my opinion, the Turkish government’s continuous leaks to the media
were meant to send a message to Saudi authorities that it would make
public potentially embarrassing evidence about Khashoggi’s killing,
unless the Saudis would pay a large ransom for Pres. Erdogan’s
silence. It is well-known that the Turkish economy is in shambles and
desperately needs tens of billions of dollars to cover its foreign
debts. Not hearing a positive response, Erdogan warned the Saudis that
he would personally go on national TV and reveal the “naked truth,”
unless the Saudis accommodated the Turkish demands. During his speech
last week, for the first time, Erdogan made public the timeline of
Khashoggi murder and raised serious doubts that it was accidental.
However, the Turkish President seemed to keep the hope alive that the
Saudis will eventually meet his shakedown demands by not making public
all of his secretly collected evidence. In his speech, Erdogan neither
mentioned the name of the Saudi Crown Prince nor the Turkish
possession of audio/visual materials which had recorded Khashoggi’s
painful death. Instead, Erdogan asked several questions that he
probably knew the answers, such as: where is Khashoggi’s body and who
is the Turkish collaborator who whisked it away at Saudis’ request?
Meanwhile, to squeeze the Saudis further, the Turkish press published
last week gruesome images of Khashoggi’s dismembered body.
The third culprit is the United States, more specifically, Pres.
Trump. When he first got the news that Khashoggi was murdered at the
Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Pres. Trump kept emphasizing his own
“great achievement” of selling $110 billion of advanced U.S. weapons
to Saudi Arabia during his last year’s visit, ostensibly creating
“450,000 jobs for American workers.” As usual, Pres. Trump exaggerated
the financial benefits as he had not signed a contract for the sale of
$110 billion of U.S. weapons. There was actually an agreement to sell
only $10-$20 billion of weapons in the next five years. Furthermore, a
year ago Pres. Trump had said that the same weapon sale would create
40,000 American jobs, not 450,000. However, a few days after
Khashoggi’s murder, Pres. Trump exaggerated his numbers, this time to
500,000 jobs. A week later, he increased it again to “one million
jobs,” and then to “over one million jobs.”
Regardless of how many jobs would be created and how many billions
would the sale of the weapons bring, Pres. Trump never expressed his
condolences to the Khashoggi family. Even though Pres. Trump kept
warning Saudi Arabia of “severe consequences,” he valued the price of
the weapons more than a human being’s life. The only American
‘punishment’ was the suspension of U.S. visas to the 18 Saudis who
were sent to Istanbul to murder Khashoggi.
Regrettably, most heads of states do not care about human beings.
What’s in it for me or my nation is the common practice. In the
process, leaders are willing to lie, cheat, and even murder.
Khashoggi’s Turkish fiancée did the right thing by refusing Pres.
Trump’s invitation to the White House. She did not want her grief to
be exploited by a politician who only cares about his own selfish
gains rather than the pain and suffering of the family members of a
mutilated murder victim.
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2- Pashinyan Resigns, Armenia Inches Closer To Snap Elections
Nikol Pashinyan’s efforts to force fresh general elections in December
cleared another legal hurdle on Wednesday, October 24, when Armenia’s
parliament agreed not to reappoint him as prime minister one week
after his tactical resignation.
Pashinyan stepped down on October 16 to pave the way for the
dissolution of the current National Assembly in which he controls only
a handful of seats. Under the Armenian constitution, snap elections
can be called only if the assembly fails to elect a prime minister
within the next two weeks.
Some legal experts believe that the constitution also requires
lawmakers to vote on at least one candidate for prime minister during
the two-week period. In what was a mere formality designed to prevent
any questioning of the legality of the parliament’s dissolution,
Pashinyan’s Yelk alliance on Tuesday nominated him for the post of
prime minister on the assumption that the parliament will reject his
candidacy.
“This is done so that we fully adhere to procedures set by Armenia’s
constitution in order to avoid differing interpretations of legal
definitions and meaningless legal debates,” Yelk’s Lena Nazarian told
the parliament.
“I was nominated not for getting elected prime minister but for not
getting elected prime minister,” Pashinyan said. “Therefore, the
National Assembly must not vote for me.”
Pashinyan, who is continuing to perform his prime-ministerial duties
in the interim, made the same appeal just before the parliament vote.
“I want to thank those who will not for me or will not vote at all,”
he said after answering questions from several deputies.
Only 12 deputies took part in the vote and none of them backed
Pashinyan against his wishes. Eleven of them abstained.
The 105-member parliament’s largest factions representing the former
ruling Republican Party (BHK) and Gagik Tsarukian’s Prosperous Armenia
(BHK) announced beforehand that they will boycott the vote. The seven
deputies representing the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun) also did not vote.
The parliament will again vote on the prime minister next week.
Another failure to elect a premier would mean its automatic
dissolution.
The HHK as well as the BHK and Dashnaktsutyun have only reluctantly
agreed to the holding of the elections in December. Early this month
they tried unsuccessfully to delay the vote until next May or June.
Pashinyan and his allies are tipped to win the upcoming polls by a
landslide. The popular premier said on Wednesday that they will
complete the victory of last spring’s “velvet revolution” that brought
him to power.
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3 – Mightier Sword: Erdogan Jails Journalists, Saudis Murder
Khashoggi in Turkey (Combined Sources)—Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan declared the killing of Jamal Khashoggi “a planned operation,”
as Turkey increased pressure Tuesday, October 23 on Riyadh to more
completely account for the death of the dissident Saudi journalist.
The statement by Erdogan showed that the Saudi effort late last week
to blame the killing entirely on security officials had failed to
resolve the 3-week-old crisis. It began on Oct. 2 when Khashoggi, a
critic of the Saudi government, disappeared after visiting the
country’s consulate in Istanbul.
But Erdogan also carefully limited his statements, avoiding anything
that might lead to a clear break in relations with the Saudis. Erdogan
had vowed on Sunday that he would reveal the details behind the
killing of Khashoggi. “The truth,” he said, would be “revealed in full
nakedness.” It remained mostly clothed.
Speaking to parliament, Erdogan declared that Khashoggi’s slaying had
been a “planned operation”—challenging the Saudi claim that he died
accidentally in a struggle with security officials.
But the Turkish leader carefully praised Saudi Arabia’s King Salman,
who is 82, and stopped short of implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, who many believe ordered the
hit on the journalist. He did not mention the crown prince’s name and
said the Saudi acknowledgment that its agents had killed Khashoggi was
a “significant step.”
“The human conscience will only be satisfied when the person who gave
the order is punished,” Erdogan said, adding that he “had no doubt
about the sincerity of King Salman” and that the investigation should
be carried out “without bias.”
“Leaving some security personnel to hold the bag will not satisfy us
nor the international community,” he said, referring to the death as a
“murder,” according to a translation provided by Turkish broadcaster
TRT World.
He did not produce a much-anticipated audio recording that Turkish
media reports have said captured Khashoggi’s final moments as he was
tortured in the office of the Saudi consul general.
Erdogan’s speech came hours after CIA Director Gina Haspel flew to
Turkey’s capital, Ankara, as U.S., Saudi and Turkish officials
continue to seek a way out of a crisis that threatens to damage their
long-standing relationships. Haspel was expected to review the
evidence that Turkish investigators have compiled about the slaying.
Erdogan spoke about the team of security, intelligence and forensic
specialists from Saudi Arabia who flew into Istanbul before and after
the killing, detailing their movements, including “reconnaissance
work” at Istanbul’s Belgrad forest and the district of Yalova, areas
where Turkish investigators believe Khashoggi’s body may have been
buried.
He also described the removal of hard drives from the consulate’s
camera system in the hours before Khashoggi was due to arrive there to
pick up documents he needed for his impending marriage.
Erdogan demanded the Saudis provide the identity of a Turkish local
who was to have assisted in the body’s disposal and confirmed that a
body double had been used as a decoy in an unsuccessful effort to show
Khashoggi had left the consulate.
Diplomatic immunity might not apply in this case, Erdogan said,
because although the killing took place on Saudi sovereign territory,
the consulate is on Turkish land. Earlier, Saudi Arabia had insisted
the suspects should be tried by its judiciary.
“The incident took place in Istanbul; therefore, I propose the trial
of these 18 people should be in Istanbul,” Erdogan said.
Erdogan has stood up for Khashoggi, yet Turkey jails more journalists
than any other country—more than China, Russia and Egypt combined.
Journalist Can Dundar said he has never seen a darker period for
journalism in Turkey. His colleagues have been imprisoned, banned from
traveling, accused of inciting hatred and aiding terrorists. Major
Turkish media outlets, the ones that still exist, toe the government
line.
Dundar himself now lives in exile in Berlin, publishing columns—in a
series called “My Turkey”—critical of a government that will likely
jail him if he returns home.
“They’d take me right off the plane,” said Dundar, the former
editor-in-chief of a prominent Turkish daily who is accused of
espionage and revealing state secrets.
Journalists like Dundar and press advocates say that Erdogan’s demands
for truth and openness in the case belie the strategy he has
used—ruthlessly and effectively—in one of the world’s most sweeping
crackdowns on press freedom. Some Erdogan critics note pointedly that
Khashoggi, a former royal court insider turned Saudi government
critic, fled his own country because of constraints on freedom of
speech and diminished tolerance for dissent.
“It’s sad,” Dundar said. “If [Erdogan] cares about journalists, what
about ours” in Turkey?
Journalists in Turkey say Erdogan’s tactics in recent years have all
but eliminated coverage that the government might dislike while
pushing the country closer toward authoritarian rule. Earlier this
year, a Turkish court sentenced six journalists and media employees to
life in prison for alleged links to the U.S.-based cleric and Erdogan
rival Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara has said spearheaded a 2016 coup
attempt.
But even for journalists who don’t face legal jeopardy, there are new
hazards. After the thwarted coup, more than 100 broadcasters and other
news outlets were ordered closed by a state decree, part of a massive
purge of perceived Erdogan enemies. Other outlets have been converted
into government cheerleaders after sales to pro-Erdogan businessmen or
companies. Media members say they have had to weigh moral decisions
about whether to remain in an industry that now serves as part of what
one veteran journalist called the “propaganda machinery.”
“Journalism is in a deep coma in Turkey,” that journalist said,
speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was reluctant to
admit publicly that he was censoring himself. “There are taboos. I
can’t write anything. It’s like the Twilight Zone.”
In the World Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without
Borders, Turkey ranks 157 among 180 nations.
At a Bloomberg-organized forum last year, Erdogan responded to a
question about imprisoned press members by saying, “Most of those you
say are in prison aren’t journalists. Most of them are terrorists.” He
added: “Saying ‘I’m a journalist’ doesn’t make you a journalist.”
For Erdogan, the media controls are one way to rein in a highly
polarized country and head off additional crises. The coup attempt
involved a bombing of the parliament building, left more than 200
dead, and highlighted the Gulen movement’s penetration of the military
and state institutions. But Erdogan seized on the crisis to silence
political opponents, as well. They were swept up in the post-coup
purges and arrests, along with dissidents, journalists and innocent
bystanders, human rights groups said. In one prominent case, police
acting on a court ruling in 2016 seized the offices of Turkey’s
highest-circulation newspaper, Zaman, firing tear gas at protesters
and placing the paper under state control. Zaman, which had been
affiliated with the Gulenist movement, soon was shut down for good.
This July, six of its former columnists and editors were sentenced to
prison terms. Amnesty International called the convictions “absurd.”
Specifically in his handling of the Khashoggi case, Erdogan has seized
on a chance to present himself as a truth-teller, weaken the rival
Saudis and burnish Turkey’s international reputation, analysts say.
Erdogan was said to have a personal relationship with Khashoggi, and
they share some views about the place of Islam in politics. Speaking
Tuesday, Erdogan described Khashoggi’s killing not as an attack
against journalism but as a brazen crime committed within a diplomatic
building involving an attempted Saudi cover-up.
Describing Turkey’s media landscape, Howard Eissenstat, a Turkey
specialist at St. Lawrence University and a nonresident senior fellow
at the Project on Middle East Democracy, said that on major issues
“the [TV] channels are in lockstep.”
“This would be the equivalent of being in a country in which you had
seven MSNBCs or seven Fox televisions, where you had news that was
clearly supportive of the government on all the channels,” Eissenstat
said.
The media crackdown has also had personal implications for
journalists, including for Dundar, who until three years ago held one
of the top jobs in Turkish journalism, as editor-in-chief of
Cumhuriyet, a mainstream opposition newspaper. Dundar called the paper
“one of the last free castles of the free media,” and in 2015, it
published video and photos purporting to show weapons shipments from
Turkey’s intelligence agency to Syrian rebels. Erdogan said soon after
that Dundar would pay a “heavy price.” Months later, he was arrested,
along with the paper’s Ankara bureau chief.
Dundar has since lived in legal limbo. He spent three months in
pretrial detention. He won his temporary release. He escaped injury
when shot at by an assailant who called him a “traitor.” (The
assailant was arrested.) And in May 2016, he was sentenced to nearly
six years in prison. He remained free to travel abroad while appealing
that decision, and at the time of the coup, he was in Barcelona and
working on a book. His lawyer suggested he not return, saying the
courts couldn’t be trusted to hear his case. Dundar listened. Instead,
he went to Germany. He has tried to lead a low-profile life in Berlin.
He says he is lonely. His wife has been barred from leaving Turkey. He
takes precautions about his safety. Earlier this year, Turkey’s
highest court said Dundar should in fact get a stiffer sentence—up to
20 years on espionage charges. In the meantime, he contributes columns
for the Germany weekly Die Zeit, and he writes about many of the
topics that journalists in Turkey can’t pursue, including corruption
and press freedom. At times, he said, he feels more like an activist
than a journalist.
“A freedom fighter, unfortunately,” Dundar said. “I say
‘unfortunately’ because it’s not the kind of journalism I wanted. But
we were forced into it.”
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4 – Armenia Appoints New Ambassador to US
The President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian on Wednesday, October 24,
signed a decree appointing career diplomat Varuzhan Nersessian as
Armenia’s Ambassador to the US. Since June 2018, Nersessian had served
as an aide to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Prior to that, he served
as an assistant to the president for five months. In early 2018,
former president Serzh Sargsyan granted Nersessian the diplomatic rank
of ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary.
Nersessian replaces Grigor Hovhannisian, who served as Armenia’s
ambassador to the United States from 2016 to 2018. In a farewell
message posted on social media, Hohannisian said “serving as the
Armenian ambassador to our close friend and ally has been the greatest
privilege of my life. My posting in Washington coincided with profound
changes in both our countries. Notwithstanding the transition process,
the dialogue and the partnership between Armenia and the United States
remained active and continued to bear fruit.”
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5- Yerevan Named Among 10 Best Tech Cities
(Enterprise Times)—Technology is one of the fastest-growing
industries. As opportunities continue to grow, so do the cities that
house them—and Yerevan is among the ten cities highlighted by
Enterprise Times, which looked at the existing companies,
opportunities for start ups, and the growth and employment
opportunities within them.
According to Enterprise times, research shows that by 2025, the need
for programmers in Armenia will have tripled to 30,000. This is
largely due to the ever-increasing innovation in their tech sector,
growing at an annual rate of 20 percent with no signs of slowing down.
“If you haven’t previous considered a move to the country previously,
it’s worth considering. Cost of living is very low, crime rates are
low and culture is in abundance. Currently the main speaking languages
are Armenian & Russian but the English language is becoming more and
more popular,” said Enterprise Times..
The other cities include: San Francisco – Silicon Valley; New York –
Silicon Alley; Austin – ‘Silicon Hills’; Singapore – Asian city state
tech hub; Melbourne – Australia’s tech city; London – Silicon
Roundabout; Stockholm – Growing North European Tech centre; Bangalore
– Growing Asian Hub; and Toronto – growing tech scene.
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6- Little Manila: Gulf-based Filipinos have fallen in love with Armenia
By Megan Iacobini de Fazio
QATAR (Al-Jazeera)—Edward Rigor, a 29-year-old Filipino, was
travelling in a minibus with several other tourists in Armenia. They
had spent the morning visiting ancient monasteries. It was spring, the
weather was cool and everyone was eager to reach the mountains.
As they drew closer, Rigor rolled down the window and stuck his head
out in the biting wind. Others got their smartphones ready and craned
their necks, hoping to catch their very first glimpse of snow.
Finally, in the distance, they saw it: the slopes just above
Tsaghkadzor town were glimmering white. “When we got there, we were
screaming inside. Everyone was taking pictures, videos, and recording
for Facebook Live and Instagram,” says Edward. “It was like being
children again, taking our shirts off and playing in the snow. We all
thought that we just have to be happy and treasure these moments,
because who knows when we will see snow again?”
Edward is one of thousands who visit Armenia every year. Since 2014,
the number of Filipino tourists has shot up from 674 to over 22,000 in
2017, the Tourism Committee of Armenia told Al Jazeera.
And over the last few years, a growing number of Filipinos has settled
in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital—at least 300, according to the
Philippines Embassy in Moscow.
The Facebook group “Filipino Community in Yerevan City” boasts 1,300 members.
Like Rigor, who lives Dubai and does admin work for a local
supermarket, most Filipinos who visit are Oversees Filipino Workers
(OFWs) in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Because of visa rules in several Gulf countries, expatriate workers
are forced to leave often to renew their visas.
The “visa run” used to be merely a wearing formality—hopping on a bus
or short flight across a border and coming back the same day. But many
now are transforming this bureaucratic hindrance into an opportunity.
“Before we used to go to Kish Island in Iran, or Muscat [Oman],” says
Edward, “but then we heard that in Armenia you can go on a tour while
changing your visa. For Filipinos who have never experienced snow,
it’s amazing.”
With flights starting from around $300 return, Armenia is one of the
cheapest Christian countries for Filipinos to get to from the Gulf,
and for the religious Filipino community, much of its allure lies in
the possibility of visiting its ancient monasteries and churches.
“To the extent that Christianity is important, having the opportunity
for worship is vitally important,” says professor James Tyner, who
teaches geography at Kent State University in Ohio and has researched
mobility and migration in the Filipino context.
“Religion may form an important part of one’s identity, and provides
also a comforting structure to one’s life. It provides stability in an
unstable, precarious existence,” he told Al Jazeera.
The bureaucratic aspect of working abroad means that the lives of many
migrants often revolve around their legal status. They sometimes have
to leave at a moment’s notice, and spend months or years away from
families. For this reasons, explains professor Tyner, community
assumes tremendous importance.
Along one of the wide, tree-lined streets of Yerevan is Little Manila,
a hostel and tour company that caters especially to Filipino visitors.
A plastic menu hangs on the wall in the common room, colourful photos
depicting the delicacies on offer: pork sinigang, lechon kawali,
tapsilog and chicken tinola.
“There are Little Manilas in Dubai and Hong Kong, so why not Yerevan
too?” says Renato Marilag, one of the hostel’s owners. He and his
wife, Marie, recently welcomed their baby Mia.
“She’s the first Armenian-Filipino baby,” he claims. “I want her to
grow up here and speak Armenian. I know she’ll like it here.”
The graphic designer was living in the UAE when he first heard of the country.
“I didn’t know of anyone who had been,” he says, “but one guy visited
some years ago and the word spread. Now all Filipinos in the Gulf know
about it.”
Beckoned by an entrepreneurial brother-in-law, Marilag travelled to
Armenia for the first time in 2015 to scope out business
opportunities.
He enjoyed the cool climate and found locals to be friendly and
helpful, despite not always being able to speak English.
“Compared to Dubai, the quality of life here is very good. Salaries
are much lower, but it’s worth it. The climate is good, and people are
nice,” he says.
Only a few months after his first visit, he and his partners opened
the doors to Little Manila. Now, they welcome an average of 120
tourists every month and run tours to Garni Temple, Lake Sevan and
Khor Virap Monastery.
“Being a Christian is very important for us, that’s why Filipinos
don’t want to miss the historical churches when they come here. That
is almost the first thing on people’s minds,” says Marilag.
But not the very first thing. Little Manila’s bookings skyrocket in
winter when the ground is covered in a thick layer of snow.
“In December, we have more than 300 guests because Filipinos want to
experience snow and a white Christmas,” says Marilag. “Throughout the
year, the most popular tours are the ones to Mount Aragats, where
there is always snow. It’s the biggest attraction, for sure.”
Rigor, for one, is planning a return trip in December. “Honestly, I
just want to keep coming back to Armenia. Again and again.”
This article appeared in Al-Jazeera on .
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7- Tekeyan Metro LA to Present Life of Legion Captain Jim Chankalian
ALTADENA, Calif.—The Tekeyan Cultural Association Metro Los Angeles
Chapter will host a program titled “Captain Jim Chankalian: Leader of
the Armenian-American Volunteer Soldiers” on Sunday, November 18, at 5
p.m. at the Tekeyan Center in Altadena. Boston-based scholar Aram
Arkun, Executive Director of the Tekeyan Cultural Association of the
United States and Canada and Assistant Editor of the Armenian
Mirror-Spectator, will serve as the keynote speaker and present
Chankalian’s biography, including his role in the Armenian Legion that
successfully defeated Turkish and German forces at the Battle of Arara
in Palestine in September 1918.
This bilingual program will be dedicated to the 100th anniversary of
this heroic victory that was achieved by the 4,000 members of the
Armenian Legion (including 1,200 valiant American-Armenian soldiers
led by Captain Jim Chankalian). Born in Dikranagerd in 1879,
Chankalian, along with three other Armenians from Paterson, New
Jersey, served in the United States Army during the Spanish-American
War. Almost twenty years later, under Chankalian’s leadership, New
Jersey became the initial military training ground for the Armenian
Legion in the United States, before they headed overseas. Chankalian
is recognized as one of the most prominent leaders of the Armenian
Democratic Liberal party (ADL) as well as the first president of the
Central Committee of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) in
the United States. He also served the Armenian Church in numerous
leadership positions, among them as a member of the original committee
which led to the building of the Diocesan Center and St. Vartan
Cathedral in New York City. He died in New Jersey in 1947.
Arkun, a respected scholar, is a graduate of Princeton University and
has a master’s degree in international relations from the University
of Pennsylvania and a C. Phil. degree in Armenian history from the
University of California Los Angeles. He has been editor-in-chief of
the AGBU Ararat quarterly, director of the Krikor and Clara Zohrab
Information Center of the Diocese of the Armenian Church (Eastern) and
adjunct assistant professor at New York University, among other posts.
He has written a number of articles on Cilician Armenians in the
modern period.
Also participating in the program is Dr. Zaven Arslanian, the maternal
grandson of Sergeant Caspar Menag of Chunkoosh and Lawrence,
Massachusetts of the Armenian Legion. Menag, who fought at the Battle
of Arara and in Cilicia, considered Chankalian to be one of the great
influences on his life.
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