Category: 2020

Reporting Requirement will Empower Congress to Counter Azerbaijan’s Reckless Cycle of “Attack, Deny, Repeat”

WASHINGTON—In a pro-accountability move that will help check Azerbaijani aggression and contribute to the stabilization of the 1994 cease-fire, the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence – chaired by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) – has included a provision in the Intelligence Authorization Act calling upon the U.S. intelligence community to provide Congress with a written assessment regarding which side is initiating the use of force in and around Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh) and the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, reported the Armenian National Committee of America.

“We welcome this provision of the Intelligence Authorization Act as a pro-active measure to ensure that Congress has reliable intelligence on Azerbaijan’s cease-fire violations against Artsakh and cross-border aggression into Armenia,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian.  “This constructive initiative, in the spirit of the bipartisan Royce-Engel Peace Proposal, will help Congress hold Baku accountable, fact-check its denials, and contribute to a more stable cease-fire.”

“Greater intelligence community scrutiny, more Congressional oversight, and additional accountability – in the form of gun-fire locators and OSCE observers – are all needed to help break Baku’s reckless pattern of attack, deny, and repeat – a one-sided cycle of violence needlessly perpetuated by uninformed calls upon all parties to refrain from violence,” continued Hamparian, who explained the provision on an ANCA Facebook Live video.

The provision, Section 822 of H.R.7856, reads as follows:

SEC. 822. ASSESSMENT REGARDING TENSIONS BETWEEN ARMENIA AND AZERBAIJAN.

(a) Assessment Required.—Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of National Intelligence shall submit to the congressional intelligence committees a written assessment regarding tensions between the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan, including with respect to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh region. Such assessment shall include each of the following:

(1) An identification of the strategic interests of the United States and its partners in the Armenia-Azerbaijan region.

(2) A description of all significant uses of force in and around the Nagorno-Karabakh region and the border between Armenia and Azerbaijan during calendar year 2020, including a description of each significant use of force and an assessment of who initiated the use of such force.

(3) An assessment of the effect of United States military assistance to Azerbaijan and Armenia on the regional balance of power and the likelihood of further use of military force.

(4) An assessment of the likelihood of any further uses of force or potentially destabilizing activities in the region in the near- to medium-term.

(b) Form Of Assessment. – The assessment required under this section shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may contain a classified annex.

The House Select Committee on Intelligence marked up the Intelligence Authorization Act (H.R.7856) on Friday, July 31st.  The Senate panel had already approved its version of the measure in June.  Upon full House consideration of H.R.7856, the Senate and House Intelligence leaders will iron out differences prior to final approval of the measure.

An online panel titled “Cultural Destruction, Cultural Memory: The Heritage of the Khachkars of Jugha (Old Julfa)” was hosted by the Boston-based National Association for Armenian Studies and Research on Thursday.

The program featured opening remarks from NAASR’s Director of Academic Affairs Marc Mamigonian, followed by presentations from Ani Babaian, an independent researcher and artist and art conservator and serves as the Library Curator at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR); Simon Maghakyan, a lecturer in International Relations at the University of Colorado Denver and independent investigator of the cultural genocide of Nakhichevan’s Armenian past; and Christina Maranci, Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Professor of Armenian Art and Architecture and Chair of the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Tufts University. Audience members asked questions at the end of the presentations.

“The erasure of Armenian cultural history in Nakhichevan is one of the most underreported acts of cultural destruction in the 21st century. The year 2020 marks the 15-year commemoration of the final phase of this systematic destruction, when in 2005, the Azerbaijani army destroyed with sledgehammers thousands of remaining khachkars in Jugha (Old Julfa) in Nakhichevan, effectively eliminating the last remains of Armenian cultural presence in the region. UNESCO had designated these monuments as Cultural Identity but took no action to protect them,” stated the NAASR in its announcement of the panel.

This NAASR program on Zoom and YouTube was the first of a series to raise awareness throughout the world about this act of cultural destruction, as well as the artistic, cultural, and religious significance of khachkars through the ages, ongoing efforts at preserving ancient ones still standing, and the art of the khachkar today.

Made in Armenia Military Equipment Tested and Demonstrated

Armenia’s Defense Ministry on Friday announced that Armenia’s Armed Forces troops in the frontline and other areas have been placed on high alerts as part of a “spot check” of their combat readiness.

This inspection was ordered by the Army’s Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Onik Gasparyan who will assess the troops’ ability to act quickly in certain situations, clarify the issues of cooperation between the various levels of military staff and conduct drill enacting operative-tactical scenarios.

This inspection comes as joint Turkey-Azerbaijan military exercises are taking place for a third day in various parts of Azerbaijan.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan said that Yerevan will be closely monitoring the exercises and warned of escalation of military aggression on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

In a related matter, Armenia’s High-Tech Industry Minister Hakob Arsahakyan said on Friday that the production of military hardware by the country’s military industrial complex has been showing good results.

Arshakyan shared photos of Armenian-made mortars and shells, some of them being tested, and said that the results of trials have been satisfactory.

Arshakyan’s ministry also release footage of combat unmanned aerial vehicles—drones— produced and manufactured in Armenia. The said drones were put into operation during fighting with Azerbaijan on July 13.

“July 13 will be remembered in history as the day, when the combat UAVs produced in Armenia were put into operation,” Defense Ministry official Artsrun Hovhannisyan said at the time. “For the first time, Armenian combat UAVs were used in combat and demonstrated excellent results.”

Artsakh should become a full party to the Karabakh conflict settlement talks, Armenia’s Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said during a meeting in Yerevan on Friday with his Artsakh counterpart Masis Mayilian.

During the meeting, which was attended by Artsakh’s newly-appointed representative to Armenia Sergey Ghazaryan, views were exchanged on steps needed to mitigate Azerbaijani aggression in light of Azerbaijan’s brazen attack on civilian and military targets in Armenia’s Tavush Province that began on July 12.

The Foreign Ministers stressed the need to further strengthen the common security system of Armenia and Artsakh and the steps to be taken in this direction. In this regard, the parties stressed the need to reject destabilizing policy in the region.

Mnatsakanyan said that Artsakh’s participation in the Karabakh negotiations must run the full gamut, including discussions on risk reduction, as well as humanitarian and other key factors in the settlement process.

The two top diplomats privatized the establishment of an environment conducive to promoting peace and the resumption of the talks that include strengthening—and unconditionally observing—the ceasefire, implementing international monitoring mechanisms on the borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as the line of contact between Artsakh and Azerbaijan and fighting against anti-Armenian rhetoric emanating from Azerbaijan.

Armenia’s Consul General to Los Angeles Ambassador Armen Baibourtian met on Thursday with representatives of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Western U.S. Central Committee.

The meeting, which took place at Armenia’s Consulate General building in Glendale, focused on the recent escalation of tensions on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border when Azerbaijani forces attacked civilian and military targets in Armenia’s Tavush Province. The ensuing threats and aggression by Azerbaijanis toward Armenians around the world was also discussed.

The participants condemned the various acts of violence and vandalism carried out against Armenians in the United States and elsewhere in the world. Baibourtian emphasized to the ARF Central Committee representatives the importance of guaranteeing the safety of the Armenian American community.

It was agreed that given the latest developments, as well as the continuing COVID-19 global pandemic, such consultations should take place on a regular basis to address issues relevant to the community and to collectively seek solutions to these matters.

BY ZEPYUR KASPARIAN

The past two weeks have had every Armenian glued to their phones, eagerly awaiting updates about the current conflict on Armenia’s borders along with the cruel harassment Diasporan Armenians face from Azeri aggressors.

On the morning of Friday, July 24, I decided to put my phone down and focus on something else. I picked up a book and was well into it when my phone would not stop buzzing. I opened my group chats to see the most unexpected horror: my school and adjacent community center had been vandalized with hate speech written all over its walls.

Krouzian-Zekarian Vasbouragan School, often shortened to K.Z.V. Armenian School, is the only Armenian day-school in Northern California. Around 2:30 in the morning on July 24, a group of suspected Azeri and Turkish thugs vandalized the school walls with racist, misogynistic, and anti-Armenian graffiti. So many young Armenians call K.Z.V. our second home. This racist and cruel incident has left us feeling violated and trespassed.

For Armenians in the Bay Area, this building is more than just a school. The Khachaturian Community Center is the pillar of our Armenian identity. It’s where we gather for plays, school hanteses, celebrations, weddings, commemorations, and everything in between.

However, we are bigger than this and better than this. Our community always has and will continue to stand together to rise above bigotry and hatred. On July 24th, a GoFundMe campaign was created to cover the costs of repairing the school. Within three days, there have already been over 680 donors raising a total amount of almost 80 thousand dollars.

For 40 years, K.Z.V. Armenian School has served the Armenian community in Northern California. It has taught hundreds of students about their language, history, and culture. Our community will not allow terrorists of any kind to destroy that in any way. Armenians are resilient and we will carry on.

When they go low, we go HYE!

Zepyur Kasparian is a proud graduate of K.Z.V. Class Of 2017

BY ARENI PANOSIAN

On a foggy day in San Francisco sometime between 2015 and 2017, my fellow Armenian school students and I sat in Digin Panossian’s (no relation to author) Armenian class at KZV Armenian school to learn about the richness and resilience found in Armenian history. It was in this very class where Digin Panossian would consistently use the pencil metaphor to emphasize how the Armenian people withstood the bigotry and violence of our past. Grabbing a single pencil, she would explain how easy it is to break one pencil, but then she would reach for handful of pencils to demonstrate how difficult it is to break them when they are all together. The main purpose of this lesson was to teach this classroom full of Armenian middle schoolers that the only way Armenian culture can sustain itself and thrive is through unity – those pencils represented the kinship of the Armenian people. We see this metaphor live in our communities today, namely through the bonds we create at Armenian schools, or summer camps, or the numerous yearly events we hold to demonstrate our unified force as a nation.

After spending the past few months in isolation, it took a blatant act of hatred and xenophobia to reunite the Armenian community of San Francisco. The indignation and sadness caused by the horrendous destruction of KZV Armenian School by Azeri aggressors this week resulted in providing this community a sense of consolation in an otherwise desolate time. Though our regular Armenian summer activities like AYC and the Navasartian Games were cancelled due to COVID-19, the San Francisco Armenian community still managed to gather together (with masks, of course) to embrace our culture despite the hateful defacing of the Bay Area’s main Armenian cultural center.

On Friday, July 24th, 2020, due to the rising tensions at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border and the global anti-Armenian sentiment rising amongst Turks and Azeris, KZV Armenian School was defaced with vulgar, anti-Armenian graffiti, presumably by immature Azerbaijani aggressors. Profane words and images were spray painted over the walls of our beautiful school along with some peculiar statements like “you will pay for LA” and “Kardashian Nation”. Within about six hours of discovering the mess, over $80,000 was raised for the school through a GoFundMe page and a mini rally was held to stand up against this brutal act of hatred, which is quite remarkable to say the least. That evening, current KZV students, parents, teachers, and alumni like myself gathered in the front yard of our loving school to lovingly sing, dance, and laugh to reclaim the school that had been violated just hours prior. Our principal, Mrs. Andonian, led us in songs and it reminded me of the quote we always referred to by Eghishe Charents, “O Armenian people, your only salvation is in your collective strength.” Rather than thrusting more hostility and bitterness into the situation, we, the San Francisco Armenian community decided to overcome this obstacle through our love for one another and our collective unity, despite the horrific words placed on the building behind us.

This act of consolation amongst the Armenian community is nothing new. The resilient Armenian people have constantly banded together in unity when faced with hatred, injustice, and humiliation throughout history, which is proven true through the existence of vibrant Armenian communities across the diaspora. Actions such as our mini protest on Friday are further proof that the only way to truly console one another after an atrocity occurs is through our collective voices and our ability to grieve together and return stronger than ever. Though the desolation and lack of Armenian events due to quarantine and the added outrage from the temporary destruction of KZV have deflated the spirits of this community, we still managed to transform our struggles into an act of defiance towards racism.

Throughout the Armenian people’s long, complex history, our excellence and resilience has been displayed through our loving and comforting solidarity with one another, as opposed to the bigotry and immaturity displayed on the front walls of KZV. While the conflicts and attacks on the Armenian borders are far from over, the Bay Area Armenian community’s opposition to a sad attempt at belittling and intimidating us only enhanced the Armenian cause and further united our people in these trying times. Furthermore, we have consistently used our collective strength, peace, and togetherness to overcome the most bleak and nightmarish times of our past, illustrating howArmenian resilience and strength stems directly from our unity. While the genocide and the Artsakh wars remain etched in our minds as some of the darkest eras of the past, the Armenian schools’ efforts to cultivate the culture that was once threatened serve as proof of the power we posses when we band together in unity. Unfortunately, suffering is human reality and hatred is inevitable in our highly political and messy world. However, by taking a firm, solid stance against it, as exemplified by the KZV community, we Armenians will rise above the occasion as more forceful and empowered people.

Like the pencils in Digin Panossian’s beloved metaphorical lesson, the Bay Area Armenians overcame a hate crime by claiming our presence both on the KZV grounds and on social media, proving once again how it is impossible to break the bunch of pencils that we are. Alone, we couldn’t have stood against this hateful act, nonetheless our gathering confirmed that we’re the furthest thing from alone, especially in our fight against hatred. Perhaps that foggy day in my middle school Armenian history classroom was the most important lesson that I could have learned in the ojakh, the hearth of my dear Armenian school.

Areni Panosian is a Class of 2017 graduate of KZV Armenian School and current student at Saint Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco.

Key discussions and recommendations outlined in White Paper from ‘Forest Summit: Global Action and Armenia’

YEREVAN—The Armenia Tree Project and the American University of Armenia Acopian Center for the Environment have released a White Paper outlining the key discussions and recommendations from “Forest Summit: Global Action and Armenia.”

The Acopian Center and ATP convened the inaugural Forest Summit on October 20-23, 2019. Though small in size, Armenia has shown renewed political commitment to protecting and expanding its forest cover. As part of its pledge to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, Armenia has committed to double its forest cover by 2050. The Summit brought local and international experts and stakeholders together for the first time to discuss the challenges and opportunities around this ambitious commitment.

The Summit was opened by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who emphasized that forests and environmental issues are a high priority for his administration. “Environmental issues are not isolated problems. They nearly always have a global impact and call for concerted efforts to address them,” declared Prime Minister Pashinyan at the Summit. “Events that provide a platform for exchanging ideas, exploring international experience, and identifying potential partnerships are crucial. I am pleased to see that today’s conference brings together world-class professionals.”

This was followed by a keynote address by Anthony S. Davis, interim dean at the College of Forestry at Oregon State University. Other speakers included David Mathenge from the Green Belt Movement, an organization whose founder won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, Omri Bonneh, Chief Forester at KKL-Jewish National Fund, Glenn Bush, an environmental economist at Woods Hole Research Center, and Maya Nehme, Executive Director of the Lebanon Reforestation Initiative.

“This first-ever Forest Summit included eight panels where local, regional, and international experts exchanged ideas as we point toward a roadmap on how to expand Armenia’s forest cover,” stated ATP Executive Director Jeanmarie Papelian. “The world has recognized that forests can play a key role in solving the climate crisis, and ATP is excited to be a part of it after laying the groundwork in Armenia for the past 25 years.”

“This White Paper provides an overview of the Summit proceedings, but more importantly it shares a number of policy recommendations on how to move forward,” explained Acopian Center Director Alen Amirkhanian. “We hope this document will help to advise our colleagues in the Ministry of Environment, as well as and other organizations in this sector, as we develop a long-term plan to expand and conserve Armenia’s forest cover over the next 30 years.”

“One Nation, Two States,” Says Turkey’s Defense Ministry

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it was closely monitoring the Turkey-Azerbaijan joint military exercises currently underway on the borders of Armenia and Artsakh.

The exercises, which were announced Monday, are in their second day and come on the heels of Azerbaijan’s brazen attacks on civilian and military targets in Armenia’s Tavush Province, beginning on July 12.

The 13-day drills, involving jets and helicopters, will continue in Baku, Nakhchivan, Ganja, Kurdamir, and Yevlakh until Aug. 10. Ground exercises are scheduled to be held in Baku and Nakhchivan from August 1 to 5 with artillery, armored vehicles, and mortars striking simulated targets.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry Thursday, in a Tweet, shared a video of the military drills, accompanied by the slogan, “One nation, two states,” and emojis of Turkish and Azerbaijani flags.

Aleksey Zaytsev, a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said that Russia is closely monitoring the drills.

“We are closely following follow the regional situation, particularly considering the recent confrontation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. We strongly urge the sides to demonstrate restraint, including in their ongoing military activities,” Zaytsev said, reported the TASS news agency.

He also said that the Russian authorities have taken all necessary measures for preventing further escalation on Armenia-Azerbaijan border.

“Russia was greatly concerned about the border escalation between two of our allies—Armenia and Azerbaijan,” Zaytsev said during a daily briefing.

“We are confident that the long-lasting Karabakh conflict, as well as any other conflict will be solved exclusively peacefully through diplomatic talks. Our position is shared also by the other OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair countries, the U.S. and France, as well as the United Nations, the CIS and other international organizations,’’ added Zaytsev.

He added that Russian authorities have taken all the necessary measures for preventing future escalation, recalling that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has had conversations with his Armenian and Azerbaijani counterparts. ‘

“We are ready to continue efforts for establishing political dialogue between Yerevan and Baku,” he said.

After Azerbaijan announced the joint military drills with Turkey, President Vladimir Putin of Russian phoned his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and stressed the importance of avoiding any actions that would escalate tensions.