Category: 2020

Glendale-based evangelical pastor Johnnie Moore, who frequently visits Baku, was the lone voice dissenting against the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s recommendation this week to place Azerbaijan on the State Department’s “Special Watch List” for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act.

In his written dissent arguing that “Azerbaijan does not meet the threshold necessary to be included in this report,” Moore claimed that Azerbaijan has “achieved much more than any of its neighbors” in bringing religious freedom into a post-Soviet legal framework. He also warned his colleagues “not to arbitrarily disregard the [Aliyev] government’s concerns about violent, religious extremism and its national security.”

Moore made no mention of Azerbaijan’s pogroms against its Armenian citizens or its failed war against Artsakh, ignoring entirely Baku’s destruction of Christian Armenian cemeteries and churches – mostly notably the Djulfa cemetery in Nakhichevan, its ongoing cross-border aggression against Artsakh and Armenia, and its relentless state-driven demonization of ethnic Armenians.

Moore is a reliable advocate and apologist for Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev, regularly traveling to Baku as part of a program of well-funded “faith-washing” missions aimed at giving Christian cover to a violent and intolerant regime. As recently as last November, he was quoted by JNS, during a trip to Baku, as saying: “Azerbaijan is a nation that gives us hope that the world can be a better place, a place where religion is a blessing to the world and not a curse—where religion is used to unite and not to divide.” That same month, Christianity Today quoted him as saying: “I believe Azerbaijan is a model for peaceful coexistence between religions.

Moore, a 36-yer-old co-chairman of the Donald Trump 2016 campaign’s evangelical advisory board pays regular visits to the White House.

“This White House, the front door is open to evangelicals,” Moore told The New York Times in 2018, estimating at the time that had visited the White House at least 20 times since Trump took office, averaging nearly once every other week.

“It hasn’t been evangelicals reaching into the White House. It’s been the White House reaching out to evangelicals. Not a day goes by when there aren’t a dozen evangelical leaders in the White House for something,” he told The New York Times.

While Moore, Southern Baptist minister, regularly and robustly praises Azerbaijan on social media, he has remained almost entirely silent about Armenia, the world’s first Christian nation.

Read the full USCIRF report.

Artsakh President Bako Sahakian on Thursday said that there will be no return to the past, both interns of territories and status of Artsakh, directly responding to statements made last week by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who claimed that the Karabakh peace talks were focused on a “phased” approach, which envisions ceding of territory to Azerbaijan as a first step to a settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

Speaking to a session of parliament where he presented a “state of the state” address detailing the progress made by his government in the past year, Sahakian said that the Artsakh authorities have not deviated from their principles regarding Artsakh. He also added that official Yerevan has already refuted Lavrov’s claims by saying that such an approach was not part of the negotiations.

“When we reflect on the Karabakh issue, we are talking about our destiny,” Sahakian said, adding that while he always has publicly and privately supported the OSCE Minsk Group’s mission of establishing peace, he has always advanced the notion that Artsakh’s security and independence could not be bargained with.

“During these years, we [Artsakh] have not deviated in any way, either from our position or from our principles,” said Sahakian, describing the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflicts as “one of the most complicated issues in the world.”

“Taking all this into consideration and respecting the interests of the international community, we are obligated to achieve a peaceful resolution to the conflict, while strongly maintain our position,” explained Sahakian who said that Artsakh will always “respect the proposals of the Co-Chairs and their sincere efforts to resolve the conflict.”

The Artsakh Foreign Ministry on Thursday issued a statement marking the 29th anniversary of the Soviet and Azerbaijani forces’ attacks on Getashen, Martunashen and Shahumyan, which became the spark for the Karabakh war.

The operation known as “Koltso”—or “Ring”—was organized and coordinated by the central authorities of the Soviet Union and Azerbaijan, whose aim was to surround and empty Artsakh of its Armenian population.

Below is the Artsakh foreign ministry’s statement.

29 years ago, under the direct organization and coordination of the central authorities of the USSR and Azerbaijan, a large-scale operation called “Koltso” (“Ring”) was carried out to deport the Armenian population of the borderline villages of Artsakh. This bloody operation ultimately transferred the Azerbaijan-Karabakh conflict to the military phase, initiating the subsequent full-scale aggression of Azerbaijan against the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic).

On April 30, 1991, the massive shelling of Getashen and Martunashen villages of the Shahumyan region launched the operation ‘Koltso’, in the course of which tanks, combat helicopters, and artillery were employed for the first time against the civilians. Azerbaijani special police units (OMON), with the support of internal troops of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Soviet Army, broke into Armenian villages formally supposedly for “checking the passport regime”, but in fact for killing, robbery, terror against the Armenian population, followed by deportation.

As a result of the military-police actions, dozens of Armenian villages of Northern Artsakh, as well as the Shahumyan, Hadrut and Shushi regions were destroyed, about ten thousand people were deported, over 100 people were killed, and hundreds of people were taken hostage. The fate of many of them remains unknown so far.

The Azerbaijani authorities considered the operation ‘Koltso’ as the beginning of the complete cleansing of Artsakh from the Armenian population. It became another manifestation of the policy of ethnic cleansing conducted by Azerbaijan in 1988-1991 in Sumgait, Baku and other settlements of the Azerbaijani SSR, as well as in the villages of Northern Artsakh.

The Armenian pogroms carried out by the Azerbaijani authorities in response to the demand of the people of Artsakh to exercise its inalienable right to self-determination and the subsequent military aggression against the Republic of Artsakh in 1991, which was repeated in April 2016, demonstrated that only the establishment and strengthening of an independent statehood can ensure the right of the people of Artsakh to live freely and safely in its homeland. The international community’s recognition of this reality and the international recognition of the Republic of Artsakh will become an additional deterrent against Azerbaijan’s desire to unleash a new war and will ensure peace and security in the entire region of the South Caucasus.

BY SARAH STITES

The folks at Aregak Bakery & Café know a thing or two about problem-solving.

In 2018, the café was founded as the solution to a problem: no restaurants in Gyumri would accept a young intern named Mikayel. Without his internship, Mikayel couldn’t graduate from culinary school.

Tigranuhi Hakobyan directs the Emili Aregak Center for special needs kids where Mikayel attended for many years. She remembers the situation clearly.

“People didn’t believe in Mikayel’s talent. He literally couldn’t find a place — a business entity or restaurant or café — where he could do his internship,” Tigranuhi remembers. “So [Mikayel and his mom] came back and asked me if he could do his internship at Emili Aregak.”

Mikayel began assisting the center’s cook. Shortly after, Tigranuhi and her team became aware of a European Union grant for social enterprise development.

“When we got the possibility of developing this grant, we were looking at Mikayel through the kitchen windows when he was working,” Tigranuhi says. The young chef’s skills inspired the director and her team with the idea of Aregak Bakery.

After a lot of brainstorming, hard work, and support from many individuals and organizations, Aregak opened in 2018 as the first café in Armenia to intentionally employ people with disabilities.

Besides Mikayel, the team includes six other special needs staff who are showing their skills and abilities to the community. Four mothers of special needs kids are also employed.

Since then, Aregak has become one of the most beloved spots in Gyumri. President Armen Sarkissian is a particular fan, and has visited the staff on multiple occasions. He and Mikayel have a special friendship; they’ve even joked about opening their own café together when the budding chef has honed his culinary skills.

Aregak attracts locals during all months of the year, but the café depends financially on the influx of tourists who begin arriving as the weather warms. Thus, when the coronavirus struck Gyumri in March, Tigranuhi began to worry.

“Just thinking that Aregak Bakery will be closed, even for a few months, made me emotional,” she says. “I was tearing up. I didn’t know what to do.”

Aregak was opened specifically for the purpose of providing life-enhancing employment for vulnerable people. It is the first workplace and only source of earned income that a number of the staff have ever had. But working at Aregak is more than a job — it gives a sense of belonging to people who have rarely felt that deep human emotion outside their homes. To lay off the staff would not only cut their paychecks, but their dignity.

Despite this, Tigranuhi saw no other option but to close the bakery for the first two weeks of the quarantine. At the same time, she was working with her team at Emili Aregak to distribute hygiene items and food to carry the center’s beneficiaries through the difficult time.

On April 1, a few bakery staff returned to the empty cafe to bake reduced quantities of bread for delivery only. At the end of the day, someone bought the leftover loaves and asked that they be sent to several of the Emili Aregak families in need.

Tigranuhi remembers thinking: “Why not start fundraising for the bakery so that we can deliver bread to the community of Gyumri and people can return to work?”

It was a “proactive” and “Aregak-style” solution, she says. The idea aligned with the bakery’s commitment to both supporting vulnerable groups as well as providing employment against all odds.

It also reflected Aregak’s innovative business model and unitive approach to work.   

With the help of a few donors, the bakery mobilized and ramped up its bread production. Armenian Caritas helped the team identify people in need. And some of the baristas and cashiers donned masks and gloves and became the delivery team. 

The campaign was announced on Facebook with a photo from the first delivery. The post depicted a recipient of the bread – a elderly woman living in one of Gyumri’s half-ruined buildings, a remnant of the 1988 Spitak Earthquake.

That photo “united a lot of people,” Tigranuhi says.

Lukshmi, an American donor with Armenian friends, says that the picture of the woman “broke my heart.”

“There are just some things you can’t unsee,” she says, “especially when it’s of those particularly vulnerable. When you see this picture, you’re forced to accept that this is someone who truly cannot help herself, someone that without another person’s help, would go hungry.”

Lukshmi, who had to postpone her wedding celebration because of the pandemic, decided to focus on her blessings. She was one of the first donors to the campaign. Then her fiancé and mom joined in. Finally, Lukshmi decided to ask her friends to contribute to Aregak in lieu of sending gifts for her big day.

“For me, staying home is a luxury – I have all of the necessities plus more than I could ever need,” Lukshmi says. “This woman? I can’t imagine the emotional and mental toll staying in her home… I just knew I had to help.”

Other donors were thankful for the opportunity to support a local initiative. “You make me proud to be Armenian,” a woman named Nana wrote in a message sent with her contribution.

With the donations that began coming in, more staff were brought back to work. Aregak’s croissant specialist Kima, mom of an autistic son, quickly learned how to work with bread dough to help the bakery produce the extra loaves being sent out to the community per day.

Kima says she’s “thankful for the opportunity to receive a paycheck during this difficult time” and “especially” thankful to the donors for their role in making that possible.

Julieta, an elderly recipient, showered her thanks on the delivery team. “[The bread] was very delicious,” she told them. “It lasted me a few days.”

Hasmik, who lives alone in a small “temporary” home and suffers from a painful disability, echoed these sentiments. “Thank you to the senders and the bringers,” she said with feeling. “Not one soul has come to my house for a very long time.”

Through the campaign, Aregak Bakery is putting its slogan #ShareOurJoy into action. Although the bread primarily satisfies a physical need, it also brings a ray of hope into the lives of those who need it right now.

“Sharing joy means sharing bread, and sharing bread means sharing the burden,” says Tigranuhi. “Bread in Armenia isn’t just food, it’s sacred.”

While the campaign has been a success, there’s a downside. Many of the staff with disabilities are unable to get involved for various reasons.

Hovhannes, one of Aregak’s sunny and beloved waiters, has Down Syndrome. This makes him more susceptible to the coronavirus. His elderly parents are also high-risk. 

Hovhannes’ mom Satik says that her son is struggling with the separation. “Work keeps him busy and motivated,” she says. “He’s feeling depressed when he finds out he still can’t go back to work the next day.”

Hovhannes is also the only breadwinner in the family, and because of that, the family is very thankful for his paycheck. 

Aregak manager Diana knows how hard it is for Hovhannes. On Easter, she and the team surprised his family by including them on the bakery’s delivery route.

“They brought cake, bread and pastries. Hovhannes was so happy and surprised,” Satik says. “We are very thankful.”

When the quarantine has passed, Tigranuhi wants to continue this spirit of sharing. It won’t be as large-scale, but the team plans to continue helping families.

“We want to keep this component of Aregak Bakery,” she says. “Aregak means ‘little sun,’ and we want to spread our rays to as many people as possible.”

http://asbarez.com/193912/sharing-joy-and-bread-in-gyumri/?fbclid=IwAR1IzuzkPcYSIrXGiPj9KSo4IWzZVlRq58nTNXWGccBZ8MQkx8LZ-N4VtDw

Contribute to Aregak’s “Our Daily Bread” campaign .

Based in Gyumri, Sarah Stites 

BREA, California – The City of Brea has declared 2020 as the “Year of The Commemoration of the 105th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.”  The proclamation also designated April of every year hereafter as Armenian History Month.

The proclamation was spearheaded by Armenian-American Marty Simonoff, Mayor of the City of Brea. Mayor Simonoff, a steadfast supporter of Armenian-American issues, was first elected into public office for the City of Brea in 1996 and  is currently serving his sixth term on the Brea City Council.

“The Armenian National Committee of America – Orange County chapter would like to extend its gratitude to the City of Brea and Mayor Marty Simonoff for their commitment to the ongoing remembrance and commemoration of the Armenian Genocide,” remarked Armen Garabedian, Chair of the ANCA Orange County chapter. “This powerful proclamation not only codefies the official remembrance of the Armenian Genocide and celebration of the Armenian-American community through the designation fo April as Armenian History Month, but highlights contemporary consequences of genocide denial through Turkey’s enabling of Azerbaijan’s physical and cultural genocide against the Armenians of Artsakh.”

Mayor Simonoff, a member of the Armenian-American community, has been a staunch supporter of genocide recognition, genocide education, and advocacy for the right to self-determinatio for the people of Artsakh. He has been instrumental in facilitating yearly Armenian Genocide Remembrances and Proclamations with the Orange County Board of Supervisor, and continues to work closely with the Armenian-American community – including the ANCA Orange County chapter – to address the interests and needs of the local community.

“We thank Mayor Simonoff for his support throughout the years in advancing our community priorities locally, and at a county level,” added Garabedian. “On this 105th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, we welcome this proclamation and look forward to continuing to work with the City of Brea and Mayor Smirnoff in advancing our community’s cause for justice. ”

The Armenian National Committee of America – Orange County chapter is the largest and most influential nonpartisan Armenian-American grassroots advocacy organization in the Orange County. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the United States, the ANCA – Orange County advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.

The Proclamation reads as follows:

WHEREAS, Armenian have inhabited the Armenian Highland for over four millennia and have developed a unique, rich civilization in the region with a long and continuous history, including the establishment of many kingdoms and also the establishment of the Armenian Empire during the first century BCE; and

WHEREAS, the Armenian people were subjects of a systematic and premeditates genocidal campaign in their ancestral homeland, which began on April 24, 1915, at the hand of the Ottoman Turkish government from 1915-1919, and which continued at the hands of Kemalist government of the Republic of Turkey from 1920-1923, whereby on and one-half million Armenian men, women, and children were slaughtered or marched to their deaths in an effort to annihilate the Armenian Nation in the first modern genocide, while thousands of surviving Armenians were forcibly converted or Islamized, and hundreds of thousands more were subjected to ethnic cleansing during the period of the modern Republic of Turkey from 1924-1937; and

WHEREAS, during the same period the Ottoman Turkish authorities massacred over one million Greeks, Assyrians, and other Christian minorities as part of the planned complete eradication and genocide of the indigenous communities. These international crimes against humanity resulted in the permanent removal of all traces of the Armenians and other targeted peoples from their ancestral historic homelands, and enriching the perpetrators with the lands of confiscation of other property of the victims, including usurpation of several thousand churches. These international crimes against humanity still require justice; and

WHERAS, in response to the Genocide and at the behest of President Woodrow Wilson and the US State Department, the Near East Relief organization-as first Congressionally-sanctioned American philanthropic effort created to rescue the Armenian genocide survivors-was founded and provided unprecedented relief, delivering more than $117 million in humanitarian assistance between 1915 and 1930, and saving approximately one million refugees, including 130,000 orphans of genocide; and

WHEREAS, prior to the implementation of the Holocaust, in order to garner support from his follower, Adolf Hitler asked “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” The Republic of Turkey continues its genocidal policy by showing no remorse for the crime and vehemently denying the veracity of the Genocide perpetrated against the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian nations; and

WHEREAS, the Republic of Turkey has long served as a destabilizing force in the region by illegally blockading the Republic of Armenia, among other gross violations of international law. The republics of Turkey and Azerbaijan proclaim each other as “one nation, two states.” From 1988-1990, the Armenian population in Soviet Azerbaijan was the target of racially motivated pogroms in the cities of Sumgait (February 27-29, 1988), Kirovabad (November 21-27, 1988), and Baku (January 13-19, 1990). 89 medieval churches, 5,840 ornate cross-stones and 22,000 tombstones in the formerly-Armenian region of Nakhichevan were systematically and covertly eradicated by the Azerbaijani government from 1997-2006 in order to erase the region’s indigenous Armenian past in what is now called “the worst cultural genocide of the 21st century.” Having suffered racial and economic discrimination under the Soviet Azerbaijani occupation, the citizens of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region declared their independence from the USSR in 1991 and established the free, independent, and democratic Republic of Artsakh; and

WHEREAS, republic of Armenian and Artsakh are bastions of freedom, liberty, and democracy in the region, serving as staunch US allies and defenders of Western Civilization.  Those citizens of Turkey who speak the truth about the Armenian Genocide continue to be silenced by violent means and/or imprisonment, in part due to a Turkish law which criminalizes any _expression_ which is considered to the insulting to the Turkish identity. The Armenian Genocide has been officially recognized by the US Congress in 2019 with the adoption of H. Res. 296 in the House of Representatives and S. Res. 150 in the Senate, officially reaffirming the US record on the Armenian Genocide; and

WHEREAS, both resolution set, as a matter of US policy to (1) commemorate the Armenian Genocide through official recognition and remembrance, (2) reject efforts to enlist, engage, or otherwise associate the United States Government with denial of the Armenian Genocide or any other genocide; and (3) encourage education and public understanding of the facts of the Armenian Genocide, including the Unites States role in the humanitarian relief effort, and the relevance of the Armenian Genocide to modern-day crimes against humanity. By recognizing and consistently remembering the Armenian Genocide and other genocides we help protect cultural and historic memory and ensure that similar atrocities do not occur again; and

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the City of Brea hereby designates 2020 as “Year of Commemoration of the 105th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide” and the month of April of every year thereafter as “Armenian History Month” and in doing so will ensure that the Armenian Genocide and history is properly commemorated in the community at large. The City of Brea hereby commends the extraordinary service which was delivered by the Near East Relief to the survivors of the Genocide, including thousands of direct beneficiaries of American philanthropy who are the great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents of many Californian Armenian-Americans, and reaffirms its commitment to working with community groups, nonprofit organizations, personnel, and the student body to host campus-wide educational events dedicated specifically to these efforts and this important part of American history.  The City of Brea calls upon the US President to work toward equitable, constructive, stable, and durable Armenian-Turkish relations based upon the Republic of Turkey’s full acknowledgment of the facts and ongoing consequences of the Armenian Genocide, and a fair, just, and comprehensive international resolution of this crime against humanity, including reparations to the Armenian Nation.