Category: 2019

NEW YORK—It was a festive occasion as friends, colleagues and supporters gathered to celebrate the Tufenkian Foundation’s 20th Anniversary. Held at the Tufenkian Carpets showroom in Manhattan on Sunday, May 19, the event featured presentations by James Tufenkian, Varant Meguerditchian, and special guest Serj Tankian, who addressed Armenia’s numerous environmental concerns, focusing especially on mining.

The program opened with welcoming remarks by MC Marisa Mesropian-Fisher, who recounted the Foundation’s accomplishments in promoting social protection, civic activism, and cultural enrichment in Armenia, as well as borderland resettlement and economic development in Nagorno-Karabagh. She then introduced Foundation trustee Antranig Kasbarian, who gave an overview of the afternoon program, as well as the Foundation’s larger, overarching mission.

“From the outset, our goal has been not simply to provide assistance, but to help people help themselves,” he noted. “We have also sought to pursue a venture role in our philanthropy. We often take on projects that others can’t or won’t—filling vacuums and planting seeds, helping various effective actors to grow, realize their potential, and hopefully take off for the benefit of the country,” said Kasbarian.

Kasbarian then invited special guest Serj Tankian to the podium. Best known as front-man of the musical group “System of a Down,” Tankian has gained additional notoriety for his outspoken activism and social criticism on a range of Armenian issues. In a heartfelt presentation, Tankian pointed out that mining, when practiced irresponsibly, has brought severe environmental and public health consequences, often disrupting life in local communities throughout Armenia. He commended these communities for their growing activism in defending their environment and holding mining interests accountable.

Tankian was followed by Varant Meguerditchian, Executive Director of the Mining Legislation Reform Institute, based in Yerevan. In a detailed slide show, Meguerditchian explained the need to reform Armenia’s mining laws, which are often weak or fail to conform to international best practices. As a result, mining companies have been encouraged to act irresponsibly, whether in terms of abusing the natural environment, creating unsafe public health conditions, or failing to contribute sufficiently to state revenue.

The final speaker was Foundation President and Founder James Tufenkian. In a direct and personal appeal, Tufenkian argued that Armenia must value its mineral assets in a way that will truly benefit the country. To date, the state coffers have been enriched very little by mining activity, which creates an imbalance between the public costs borne by the country versus the material benefits the country can receive.

He concluded by exhorting the crowd to join MLRI’s upcoming lobbying efforts, which will require nearly $400,000 during the next two years, “I can’t imagine a better return on investment than spending a few hundred thousand dollars, and succeeding in developing a revenue stream that will bring tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions to the state budget,” he argued. “If we accomplish this, we will immeasurably help Armenia to address the numerous social, defense, public health, and other challenges it urgently faces.”

The program concluded with a lively and challenging question-and-answer period.

LAS VEGAS—Nevada Congresswoman Dina Titus was part of an eight member US delegation that visited Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine earlier this April.

The delegation members were part of the Congressional House Democracy Partnership and the purpose of the visit was to identify potential opportunities for impactful engagement by HDP with the Armenian Parliament.

Congresswoman Dina Titus and the delegates had meetings with Prime Minister Nikole Pashinyan, Armenia’s Parliament Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan, visited Etchmiadzin and met with H. H. Catholicos Karekin II, and visited the Armenian Genocide Memorial Monument at Dzizernagapert.

Las Vegas Honorary Consul Adroushan Andy Armenian, ANCA Nevada Co-Chairs Hera Armenian, Esq. and Lenna Hovanessian, Esq., along with Margo Chernysheva-Yepremyan, Esq., Hovig Maknissian, and Mikhael Oganesian met the Congresswoman to discuss her recent trip to Armenia.

Congresswoman Titus shared her positive impressions of Armenia, recognizing the geopolitical challenges facing the landlocked nation. Congresswoman Titus also indicated her support for future initiatives to strengthen US-Armenia ties and welcomed the involvement of the Las Vegas Armenian-American community in building stronger economic ties with Armenia. The Congresswoman also commented that she is keen in seeing increased US Economic aid to Armenia in the near future.

BY GAREN YEGPARIAN

This is one of those good/bad news situations.

The online talk show (formerly a radio program) named “The Young Turks” (henceforth TYT to save ink and pixels) hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian has belatedly come clean regarding the Armenian Genocide. You can hear it yourself on this May 13th YouTube posting. The program is ideologically left wing

The main host, Uygur, had been on the record as a denialist since at least his college days when he published his views. As recently as February 2012, he was still on the same track when avoided straightforwardly recognize the Genocide when he spoke at the California Democratic Party convention.

Based on the comments made by Kasparian on the YouTube video clip, this was not the first time that TYT had recognized the Genocide. If this is so, I’m disappointed not to have learned of it sooner. But then, I was certainly not going to watch, and thus support, a show hosted by a Turk who was a denialist and an Armenian who willingly worked beside and with that Turkish denialist.

So far, so good, right? It’s great that a somewhat popular media personality, and a Turk at that, stopped his denial of the Genocide. But it’s not that straightforward. First, he introduced the topic of properly recognizing the Armenian Genocide. But it was only a teaser. He wanted to debunk rumors spreading online about TYT that he described as “wildly inaccurate” – and I have to say they are! Supposedly, TYT is controlled by Qatar (stemming form an advertising deal they had a few years ago); that TYT is owned by George Soros (stemming from TYT belonging to a grouping of media outlets, some others of which had gotten Soros funding), and that Uygur was secretly a Republican (because he had gotten a loan, since repaid, from Buddy Roemer, a Louisiana governor who switched parties from Democratic to Republican). Remember, TYT is a left-wing program!

Why is all this relevant? Notice what Uygur did, he pushed a hot issue on which he has been excoriably wrong, to the back burner. Sure, his acceptance of the reality of the Genocide was emphatic, citing seven (if I didn’t miscount) examples of ridiculous lines of Turkish denial and other aspects of utterly false Turkish “history” he had been taught.. His explanation of why he had been a denier (basically, his Turkish upbringing and childhood schooling) even makes a lot of sense. But it wasn’t front-and-center.

After Uygur is done, Kasparian chimes in with a sob-story of how right wingers have used her ascribed denial of the Genocide for political gain. Then she complains that this has led to serious threats against her and her family, given that she lives in Los Angeles. While that’s not a pleasant position to be put in, her assertion that it is ridiculous to be labeled a denier when she is an Armenian rings hollow. The old saying – “Lie down with dogs, wake up with fleas” comes to mind.

For years she worked with an unrepentant Genocide denier. Isn’t it reasonable for people to associate the same vileness with her?

All of which brings us to the most important point. Great, a denialist Turk has come around. Maybe the up-to-now-Quisling Armenian even helped make that happen. Also nice. But what about the name of the program? The Young Turks. If Uygur and Kasparian expect ot be taken seriously, if they expect us to really believe that this isn’t a sham, that the pressure from progressive circles finally became too much, then THE NAME OF THE PROGRAM HAS TO CHANGE!

It is utterly unacceptable to continue to sanitize a group of Genocide perpetrators, the Young Turks of the 19-20th centuries. The excuse is, you might recall, that initially, since the Young Turks were trying to reform the Ottoman Empire, their name became a synonym for people trying to make positive changes. Well, we saw how that turned out. History has spoken and the use of “Young Turk” in a positive sense can only mean one thing, a whitewash.

So let’s flood Uygur and Kasparian with e-mail, tweets, Facebook messages, old-time letters, and any other means you can think of calling upon them to dump that disgusting name into the incinerator (not just the dustbin) of history!

State Senator Anthony Portantino recently sat down with California Governor Gavin Newsom to discuss the Armenian American Museum and the $5 million earmarked in the proposed 2019-2020 state budget for the project.

During the regular cabinet meeting on Thursday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed orders to relieve deputy ministers from their positions as the process of forming a government under a new structure, approved recently by the National Assembly, moves forward.

Pashinyan dismissed Deputy Ministers of Education and Science Grisha Tamrazyan and Arevik Anapiosyan, Deputy Ministers of Agriculture Garnik Petrosyan, Artak Kamalyan and Tigran Gabrielyan, Deputy Ministers of Diaspora Davit Sargsyan and Babken DerGrigorian, First Deputy Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Gabriel Ghazaryan, Deputy Ministers of Sport and Youth Affairs Kristine Asatryan, Sargis Avagyan and Gevorg Loretsyan, Deputy Ministers of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources Hakob Vardanyan and Vardan Gevorgyan, Deputy Ministers of Culture Tigran Galstyan and Nazeni Gharibyan have been relieved from their posts.

The prime minister’s office indicated that a new government will be announced in coming days.

“This is our last session under the 17-ministry structure. I would like to thank all our colleagues for the work during this period. I wish those who will continue their work the best of luck, and I would like to thank those who will not continue working,” Pashinyan said during Thursday’s cabinet meeting.

The new government will be made up of 12 ministries. It is envisioned that the tasks of the ministries that were abolished from the new structure will be distributed among the remaining, reconfigured, government structured/

“I am convinced that we will have positive results and the quality of the government’s work will grow,” said Pashinyan who emphasized that the decision to minimize ministries would make the government more efficient.

After a four-day visit to the region, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen—Igor Popov of Russia, Stéphane Visconti of France, and Andrew Schofer of the United States—issued an announcement Thursday in which they said that they proposed concrete steps for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process.

During their latest visit, the co-chairs, along with the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, met with officials in Yerevan, Baku and Stepanakert to assess the latest development in the region.

Below is the text of the announcement.

The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, together with the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, visited the region from May 27 to 30.

The Co-Chairs met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Yerevan on May 27 and with President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on 30 May. In both capitals, they held consultations with the respective Foreign Ministers and Defence Ministers. On May 28, the Co-Chairs met with the de facto authorities in Nagorno-Karabakh. In Baku, the Co-Chairs met with the Chairman of the Azerbaijani Community of Nagorno-Karabakh. While in Nagorno-Karabakh, the mediators were briefed on humanitarian issues by the local representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The main purpose of the visit was to assess the evolution of the situation on the line of contact and the international border, and to follow up on the discussions held by the Azerbaijani President and the Armenian Prime Minister in Vienna on March 29 and their respective Foreign Ministers in Moscow on April 15.

As requested, the Co-Chairs provided proposals for concrete next steps in the settlement process, including on humanitarian and security measures. The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan accepted the Co-Chairs’ proposal to meet soon under their auspices, and will announce details at the appropriate time.

The Co-Chairs expressed deep concern about recent casualties and called on the parties to exercise maximum restraint to avoid escalation.