Category: 2019

Sen. Bob Menendez Kicks Off Senate Effort to Support Artsakh De-Mining; Visit anca.org/call to take action

WASHINGTON—The U.S. House of Representatives sent a swift and powerful rebuke to the Trump Administration’s efforts to cut U.S. aid for Artsakh de-mining efforts, with 89 Members of Congress – many chairing key House committees – co-signing a letter, led by senior House Foreign Affairs Committee member Brad Sherman (D-CA) and Congressman TJ Cox (D-CA), defending this life-saving program, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).

The Sherman-Cox letter, an initiative supported by the ANCA, encourages USAID Administrator Mark Green to reverse course and continue U.S. funding for the Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) de-mining program. Administrator Green testified before the Foreign Affairs Committee on April 9th of this year that USAID was committed to completing the clearance of landmines and unexploded ordnances within the traditional boundaries of Nagorno Karabakh.

Administrator Green’s exchange with Rep. Sherman is available on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=286907845554947

“Within a week, during a Congressional recess, eighty-nine U.S. Representatives from 24 states – including 10 full Committee chairs – joined with the ANCA in openly challenging the Trump Administration’s misguided attempt to end U.S. aid to Artsakh – a powerful response that speaks volumes about the scope and depth of American support for this life-saving program,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “We thank Representatives Sherman and Cox for leading this effort on the House side, are actively supporting the efforts of Senator Menendez on the Senate side, and will continue our work to make Artsakh mine-free and expand the U.S. aid program to include vital rehabilitation services,” continued Hamparian.

Members of Congress received thousands of letters and calls from constituents through the ANCA Rapid Responder system and March to Justice platforms in support of continued aid to Artsakh, with the ANCA Leo Sarkisian and Maral Melkonian Avetisyan summer fellows meeting with hundreds of Capitol Hill staffers in support of the initiative.

“The USAID-funded demining program in Artsakh, implemented by the well-respected HALO Trust, serves as a major American investment in the peace and stability of a strategically important region,” explained Congressman Sherman. “The HALO Trust has cleared thousands of mines to date, saving countless lives. Whether or not USAID previously expected HALO Trust to complete the clearance of mines in Artsakh by September 2019, Administrator Green seemed clear in stating to me on the record in April that USAID will work to completely clear Artsakh of landmines and unexploded ordnances. Thus, I hope USAID to follow through on its commitment and provide additional funding to HALO Trust as needed to complete this critically important project. I am glad to be joined by more than 80 of my colleagues in sending a follow-up letter to Administrator Green to urge USAID to reconsider its decision to stop funding for humanitarian landmine clearance in Artsakh at the end of this year.”

Rep. TJ Cox concurred, noting, “I’m deeply troubled by the recent decision that USAID had made to halt funding for humanitarian landmine clearance in Artsakh. This move would leave the people of the region with no hope, and fear of death or injury from landmines, with no local capacity in place to address the ongoing threat. USAID must follow through on its commitment to provide additional funding to The HALO Trust to complete this vital project, as promised by Administrator Green. I will continue working with my bipartisan colleagues in Congress, the Armenian National Committee of America, and The HALO Trust to secure federal funding, which will allow us to achieve a mine-free Artsakh.”

Chris Whatley, Executive Director HALO USA explained, “With thousands of landmines still left in the ground, and families living daily in the shadow of death or devastating injury, this is no time for the United States to back away from its historic commitment to the people of Nagorno Karabakh.” HALO Trust has been de-mining in Artsakh for close to 20 years.

The Members of Congress joining Representatives Sherman and Cox in co-signing the letter to USAID Administrator Mark Green are: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel (D-NJ), Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Select Committee on Intelligence Chair and Ranking Republican Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Devin Nunes (R-CA), Rules Committee Chair Jim McGovern (D-MA), Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA), Natural Resources Committee Chair Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Ethics Committee Chair Ted Deutch (D-FL), House Administration Committee Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Agriculture Committee Chair Collin Peterson (D-MN), and Representatives Karen Bass (D-CA), Don Beyer (D-VA), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Sanford Bishop (D-GA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Julia Brownley (D-CA), Salud Carbajal (D-CA), Tony Cardenas (D-CA), Joaquín Castro (D-TX), Judy Chu (D-CA), David Cicilline (D-RI), Gil Cisneros (D-CA), Katherine Clark (D-MA), Lou Correa (D-CA), Jim Costa (D-CA), Jason Crow (D-CO), Susan Davis (D-CA), Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Nanette Diaz Barragan (D-CA), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), John Garamendi (D-CA), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ), Deb Haaland (D-NM), Josh Harder (D-CA), Katie Hill (D-CA), Jim Himes (D-CT), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Bill Johnson (R-OH), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Joe Kennedy (D-MA), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Steve King (R-IA), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), James Langevin (D-RI), Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Susie Lee (D-NV), Andy Levin (D-MI), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Daniel Lipinski (D-IL), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Donald Norcross (D-NJ), Chris Pappas (D-NH), William Pascrell (D-NJ), Collin Peterson (D-MN), Katie Porter (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Max Rose (D-NY), Harley Rouda (D-CA), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), Bobby Rush (D-IL), Tim Ryan (D-OH), Linda Sanchez (D-CA), John Sarbanes (D-MD), Janice Schakowsky (D-IL), Brad Schneider (D-IL), Albio Sires (D-NJ), Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), Jackie Speier (D-CA), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Dina Titus (D-NV), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Lori Trahan (D-MA), David Trone (D-MD), and Juan Vargas (D-CA).

Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is circulating a similar letter to Senate colleagues in support of continued U.S. funding for Artsakh de-mining. Similar to the U.S. House initiative, the ANCA has issued a call to action to supporters of Artsakh assistance to call their U.S. Senators, with contact information available at anca.org/call.

SYDNEY, Australia—The Armenian National Committee of Australia has criticized the attempted silencing of elected Australian representatives by the petro-dictatorship of Azerbaijan and its representatives, who have used diplomatic channels to formally protest the recent achievements in the area of Artsakh advocacy announced during the visit of a delegation from Stepanakert for meetings in Canberra, Sydney, and Melbourne.

Baku has not taken kindly to the federal, state, and local government welcomes received by the delegation led by Artsakh’s Foreign Minister Masis Mayilyan, as well as the Ryde City-Stepanakert Friendship City relationship announcement, and the launch of the Australian Friends of Artsakh with 40 inaugural signatories—all prominent Australians in politics, academia and civil society— pledging to support the fundamental human right to self-determination for the Armenians of the Republic of Artsakh.

Leyla Abdullayeva, the spokesperson for Azerbaijan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, released a statement to reassure supporters that “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been seriously in charge of and has taken a number of measures recently with regard to the activities of the Armenian Diaspora organizations of Australia in promoting the illegal separatist regime in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, as well as the statements by the Australian official of Armenian origin.”

She added that the Australia’s Ambassador to Azerbaijan—who is based in Turkey—had been called in to a meeting in Baku to discuss the developments, revealing “the Chargé d’Affaires of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Commonwealth of Australia presented the note verbal to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Australia. Also our protest was brought to the attention of the Ambassador of Australia in the meeting held at the MFA of Azerbaijan.”

Abdullayeva also stated that Azerbaijan’s “Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has sent an official letter to his Australian counterpart, Marise Payne. In his letter, Minister Mammadyarov refers to the position of the international community on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

ANC-AU Executive Director Haig Kayserian called out this attempted interference into Australian affairs.

“We’re talking about the interference into Australian affairs by a country which is a notorious jailer—and kidnapper outside of Azerbaijan—of journalists and opposition figures, a country which is embroiled in an international bribery scandal with the Azerbaijani Laundromat, and which regularly violates the internationally brokered Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire, killing innocent Armenians who are indigenous to the Republic of Artsakh,” stated Kayserian.

“It would seem they have enough issues to deal with before trying to apply pressure on elected Australian officials to discourage them from doing what they know is right—backing the human right of self-determination of the indigenous Armenians of the Republic of Artsakh.”

Mammadyarov’s correspondence to Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne apparently expressed that the successes in Artsakh advocacy announced over the past week “contradict the expressed official position of the Federal Government of Australia and reminded that such steps in relation to the illegal separatist regime were not in line with the well-known international practice and constitute a flagrant violation of the norms of international law.”

“While it is stated that Canberra has reassured Baku that their official, contradictory position of ‘supporting the OSCE Minsk Process while backing Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity’ has not changed, it is clearly not lost on Azerbaijan that the formation of a group of 40 prominent Australians, including a bipartisan collective of Ministers, Shadow Ministers and Parliamentarians, is a significant blow to the smokescreen they have been selling countries like Australia in recent years,” added Kayserian.

“The Armenian-Australian community is made up largely of survivors of the Armenian Genocide, and the Armenia that our ancestors were forced to flee included an Armenian Artsakh, which is why officials we elect have extended their ears and support to our concerns about Azerbaijani aggression and war-mongering. The truth is coming out, and it seems this has brought out the worst in Baku.”

“We encourage Australia’s foreign ministry and the government to outright reject calls from a foreign dictatorship to silence our democratic nation’s freedom of _expression_, which begins with our elected officials,” he said.

The New South Wales Parliament recognized the Republic of Artsakh in 2012 and Ryde City Council followed suit in 2018. Last week, Ryde City unanimously passed a resolution forming a Friendship City relationship with Artsakh’s capital Stepanakert.

This week saw the announcement of the Australian Friends of Artsakh—a newly-formed group of 40 prominent Australians, including Federal Ministers and Parliamentarians, a State Premier and fellow State Parliamentarians, a Mayor and Councillors, academics, thought leaders, and heads of several religious and community institutions.
The Federal contingent of signatories is led by Members of Parliament including Australia’s Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar, Shadow Home Affairs Minister Senator Kristina Keneally and Shadow Agriculture & Resources Minister Joel Fitzgibbon.

Fitzgibbon is the co-convener of the Armenia-Australia Inter-Parliamentary Union along with the Chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Health, Aged Care & Sport and Member of Parliament Trent Zimmerman, who also joined the Australian Friends of Artsakh, along with fellow Chairs of Federal Parliamentary Committees including John Alexander, Julian Leeser, Jason Falinski and Tim Wilson—who is the only Member of Australia’s Federal Parliament with Armenian heritage. Newly elected Member of Parliament Josh Burns is also a friend of Artsakh.

Gladys Berejiklian, who is the most prominent among Armenian-Australians as the Premier of Australia’s largest state of New South Wales, leads the list of State Parliamentarians among the inaugural Australian Friends of Artsakh, which also includes Speaker of NSW Parliament’s House of Representatives Jonathan O’Dea and his fellow convener of the NSW Armenia-Australia Parliamentary Friendship Group, Shadow Treasurer and Member of Legislative Council Walt Secord.

Member of Parliament Dr. Hugh McDermott and Member of Legislative Rev. Fred Nile are also among the current NSW parliamentarians to join the group, along with former state political representatives including Marie Ficarra and Amanda Fazio.

Among other inaugural signatories to the Australian Friends of Artsakh include Ryde City’s Mayor Jerome Laxale and Councilor Sarkis Yedelian, along with several Councilors from Ryde City and Willoughby City.

A number of academics and civil society leaders have also signed on to support Artsakh, including Professor Peter Stanley, Dr. Sev Ozdowski, Dr. Panayiotis Diamadis, Dr. Brian Owler and Chris Crewther.

Leaders of communities and churches have joined the Australian Friends of Artsakh as inaugural signatories, led by the President of the NSW Ecumenical Council and the President of the Australasian Middle East Christian Apostolic Churches.

The Board of the Civilitas Foundation announced Apo Boghigian as the foundation’s new director. Since its establishment in 2008, Civilitas has pioneered civil society strengthening through open public discussions and polling, reporting and analysis, collaborated in cross-border activities and most notably, established the ground-breaking, trendsetting media outlet, CivilNet.

Boghigian, who was born in Anjar, Lebanon, studied in Los Angeles, and has lived in Armenia for 18 of the last 30 years, will head both entities.

“CivilNet.am is now a globally recognized bilingual source for news and analysis, a proud achievement of the Civilitas Foundation, which was established precisely to bring meaningful change in Armenian society. This work will expand and diversify under Apo Boghigian’s able leadership and exceptional commitment to the ideals that drive us — a fair society, a welcoming country where individuals can prosper and contribute to humanity,” said Salpi Ghazarian, the founding director of Civilitas.

Boghigian was a Candidate in Philosophy, studying with the late Professor Avedis Sanjian, when he interrupted his doctoral studies in Armenian literature to take on the position of editor-in-chief of the Asbarez daily newspaper, in Los Angeles, in 1985. Under his leadership, the newspaper grew to become one of the Diaspora’s two most influential media outlets.

In 1990, in the last years of the Soviet Union, as the Karabakh movement had ushered in a political awakening, and the call for reunification and independence gained momentum, Mr. Boghigian repatriated to Armenia to establish several media outlets, including the Yerkir newspaper. He also set up the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Press Office, which provided indispensable daily reports from the frontlines of the Karabakh War and soon after, the newly independent Armenia. As founding editor of Yerkir Daily, he adopted the principles of independent journalism to satisfy an international public clamoring for news and analysis from the region.

“The movement had awakened a whole nation,” he says. “I couldn’t, with a clear conscience, appeal to the Armenian people to become a part of it, while sitting in Los Angeles.”

Upon returning to the U.S. in 2008, he assumed the editorship of Asbarez once more, and expanded the newspaper’s capacity, reach and coverage. He stayed with the Asbarez until this month.

Boghigian will lead Civilitas and CivilNet to new frontiers. “I always intended to return to Armenia. And to return as a member of the CivilNet family is a compelling and meaningful opportunity. It is also a huge responsibility. To be working among and to be defining a vision with a group of committed young professionals is very exciting,” he says.

With a staff of three dozen, CivilNet focuses on LIVE broadcasts, investigative, as well as advocacy and solutions-based journalism. Bilingual (Armenian and English) reporting, data-driven analysis from all corners of Armenia, Karabakh, and the Diaspora are at the heart of CivilNet’s work. In 2013, CivilNet was the only Armenian media organization to report from Syria. In 2018, 16 million people viewed CivilNet’s 24-hour LIVE broadcast of the “velvet revolution”. In between, it was CivilNet’s pioneering efforts to cover each of the small, targeted civil protests, which culminated in the successful political transformation of 2018.

“Civilitas was founded by former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian, at a time when civil society work needed to expand and be more impactful. Today, Civilitas can and will serve a new role as a center for exploration and analysis. CivilNet is an integral part of that operation to bring nuanced, complex understandings of the challenges facing Armenians to the public, in Armenian and in English. Apo Boghigian’s experience and passion are the perfect combination to carry forward this mission,” concluded Ghazarian.

Boghigian will step into his new position on September 1.

Prominent Armenian-American scholar and historian of the Armenian Genocide Professor Vahakn Dadrian passed away Friday. He was 93.

Reaction was swift to Dadrian’s passing, with President Armen Sarkissian, Prime Minister Nikpl Pashinyan, joining Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament to offer condolences.

“I knew Doctor Dadrian not only as a brilliant scholar but also as an excellent expert of international relations and a person communication with whom was instructive and gratifying. These recollections and memories of him will always stay bright with those who knew him and appreciated his accomplishments,” said President Sarkissian.

“Istanbul-born academician Vahakn Dadrian, who was best known for his works on the Armenian Genocide, has passed away. His books published in Turkey played an important role in the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide. God bless his soul!” said Paylan, who represents the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in parliament in a Twitter post.

Vahakn Norair Dadrian was born in 1926 in Istanbul, Turkey to a family that lost many members during the Armenian Genocide. Dadrian first studied mathematics at the University of Berlin, after which he decided to switch to a completely different field, and studied philosophy at the University of Vienna, and later, international law at the University of Zürich. He completed his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Chicago.

Dadrian was not only an authority on Armenian genocide, but also on genocide studies and theory in general, being part of the so-called “first generation” of genocide scholars, who created this area of study in the 1970s.

Given his command of several languages, Dadrian was able to do research in various archives around the world, revealing previously unknown documents about the Armenian genocide and creating sociological typologies about the event that have become a reference for all scholars of the subject. One of his last works was the book, “Judgments in Istanbul,” co-authored with Prof. Taner Acam.

“He was my mentor. I owe him a lot… He is a big loss for Armenians and humanity. He will continue to live with us with his work. May his soul rest in peace,” Akcam said in a post on his Facebook page.

He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree for his research in the field of Armenian Genocide Studies by the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, and later, in 1998, he was made a member of the academy and honored by the President of Armenia with the republic’s highest cultural award, the Khorenatzi medal. In 1999, Dadrian received the Mesrob Mashdots medal from His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia.

The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation sponsored him as director of a large Genocide study project, which culminated with the publication of articles, mainly in the Holocaust and Genocide studies magazines. He was the keynote speaker at the centennial of the John Marshall Law School and delivered a lecture to the British House of Commons in 1995. He also received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

He has lectured extensively in French, English and German in the Free University of Berlin, the Universities of Munich, Parma, Torino, Zürich, Uppsala, Frankfurt am Main, Cologne, Bochum, Münster, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Geneva, Brussels and UNESCO’s Paris center.