The California
Courier Online, July 27, 2023
1- Armenians
Shouldn’t Alienate Foreigners
And
Complain that ‘No One Cares about Us’
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
2- COMMENTARY: We
are pitiful and weak because we have not been aggressive
3- Armenian
Archbishop of Iran condemns
Quran burning in Europe
4- Melany
Nazarian Opens Vegan Bakery in East Hollywood
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1- Armenians
Shouldn’t Alienate Foreigners
And
Complain that ‘No One Cares about Us’
By Harut
Sassounian
Publisher,
The California
Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com
As the publisher of a newspaper, I frequently receive what
is supposed to be factual ‘news,’ but, after doing some checking, I find out
that most of what I was told is baseless rumor.
A good example of gossip mongering happened last week when
Israeli travel blogger and journalist Alexander Lapshin arrived in Los Angeles. His visit
generated rumors and hateful words by some Armenians.
For those who are not familiar with Lapshin, he visited Armenia on
several occasions and went to Artsakh in 2011 and 2012. Azerbaijan
blacklisted him, considering his visit to Artsakh illegal. Pres. Aliyev then
asked Belarus in 2016 to
arrest and extradite Lapshin to Azerbaijan.
After being held in a Belarus
jail for two months, Lapshin was sent to Baku
on Feb. 7, 2017, on the personal airplane of Pres. Aliyev, where he was put
through a sham trial and sentenced to three years in jail. On September 11,
2017, Lapshin was attacked in his prison cell by four masked Azeri agents who
broke his jaw, ribs and arm, partially paralyzing him. He spent three days in
the intensive care unit of a Baku hospital, after which Pres. Aliyev issued him
a pardon and expelled him to Israel, where he spent another two weeks in a
hospital. Azeri officials falsely claimed that Lapshin had tried to commit
suicide which he strongly denied. Several independent medical examiners
confirmed that there was an attempt on Lapshin’s life in Baku.
Ever since his release from jail, Lapshin has toured dozens
of countries exposing Azerbaijan’s
dictatorial regime and its human rights violations against its own citizens and
Armenians in Artsakh.
Contrary to the unfounded rumor that he is an Israeli agent,
Lapshin has had a major conflict with the Israeli authorities who repeatedly
warned him that if he knows what’s good for him and his family, he should stop
criticizing Azerbaijan.
Israeli officials described Azerbaijan
as ‘an ally of Israel’ and
told him that his actions were contrary to Israel’s interests. Lapshin was
given the same negative message when he met with American Jewish organizations.
Israel also warned Lapshin
that his Moldovan wife would not be granted Israeli citizenship unless he stops
vilifying Azerbaijan.
Lapshin is currently on a tour of Canada,
the United States and Mexico where he is meeting with human rights
organizations and elected officials to expose Azerbaijan’s brutal violations and
defend the interests of Artsakh Armenians.
My source for this information is neither Lapshin nor his
critics. There are two official documents — the European Court of Human Rights
and the UN Human Rights Committee — which independently verified the
information submitted by both Lapshin and Azerbaijan’s government.
Lapshin filed a complaint against Azerbaijan to the European Court of
Human Rights in 2018. The Court, in a 32-page decision in 2021, found credible
that Azerbaijan had
attempted to murder him and ordered Azerbaijan
to pay Lapshin 30,000 euros in compensation, which Azerbaijan has refused to do.
In 2022, the UN Human Rights Committee, in a 10-page report,
recognized that Belarus
violated several articles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights by arresting and extraditing Lapshin to Azerbaijan, thus putting his life
at risk.
Here are some interesting facts from the ruling of the
European Court of Human Rights on the case of Lapshin vs. Azerbaijan.
The Government of Azerbaijan falsely told the European Court that
Lapshin had written two letters from his Baku
hospital allegedly thanking Pres. Aliyev for pardoning him and stating that the
prison guards saved his life. Lapshin denied that he wrote these letters. The European Court
concluded that Azerbaijan’s
allegation is “particularly hard to believe in view of the difficulties which
the applicant [Lapshin] had with his writing arm.” Yet there are some Armenians
who rather believe Azerbaijan’s
lies and forged letters than the European
Court’s ruling that there was no reason to doubt
Lapshin’s word. The Court also found Lapshin’s assertion ‘plausible’ that there
was an attempt to murder him in his Baku
prison cell.
The Azeri Judge Latif Huseynov, who was a member of the
seven judges assigned to the Lapshin vs. Azerbaijan case, refused to
participate. He was replaced by another Azeri Judge, Ceyhun Qaracayev, who
voted with the rest of the judges unanimously “in favor of a finding of a
violation of Article 2,” which is the ‘Right to Life’ of the European
Convention on Human Rights.
In conclusion, those who accuse Lapshin of being a spy
without any evidence are alienating a supportive non-Armenian who has risked
his life to defend the rights of Artsakh Armenians. This is contrary to the
constant Armenian complaint that no one in the world cares about Armenia’s and
Artsakh’s destitute situation.
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2- COMMENTARY: We are pitiful and
weak because we have not been aggressive
By Armine C. Koundakjian
Consider our neighbors and other successful nations and
compare them with us. Look at Armenia’s
closest friendly neighbor, Iran
— which has preserved its Kingdom for 2,500 years — has not been ruled by any
power to such an extent that it does not have an Independence Day. From its
inception, through brute force, Iran
has persevered itself until now. Without any hesitation and without obeying the
dictates of corrupt world powers, it is acting at par with the United States.
Never mind historic aggressors like the Roman Empire,
Alexander the Great, Napoleon and others, we have also had our own world dominant
kings for a short period, like Tigran the Great and Ardashes the Conqueror.
But then, what happened? Where did we go wrong? I think that
we misunderstood Christianity. We followed it literally. We became meek,
obedient and forgiving towards a world that does not value any of these
virtues. This became a fatal combination that made us perfect victims of our
vicious enemy Turkey.
We became a docile lamb for slaughter for centuries.
The World has never been kind or forgiving toward us. On the
contrary, it has been vengeful and domineering.
Our beloved Democratic United States, the successor to the British Empire (which dominated over 400 million subjects
comprising 40% of the globe) has been just as aggressive. Let us remember how
many countries the U.S. dominated
(Mexico, Philippines,
etc.).
The West has never followed Jesus Christ’s dictate: “When
they slap you, turn the other cheek.” The West has done exactly the opposite:
It has chopped off the head of the slapper!
On September 11, 2001 a group of Saudi Arabians attacked the
World Trade
Center in New York. The United States retaliated by
bombing Iraq
which is still in ruins.
In his poem titled: “We are few, but we are called
Armenian,” Baruyr Sevag wrote: “When we were many, and we were standing tall,
we never overpowered any other nation, nobody suffered because of our might; if
we did dominate, we did it with our books, our literature.” Regretfully, we did
not even dominate with our books. How many have read our literary geniuses like
Hovhannes Toumanian, Naregatsi or Charents, but millions have read Omar
Khayyam, Rumi, and others. Persia
(Iran)
has been and still is powerful, therefore, its culture spread. Persia has been
a force to recon with for centuries. It has fought with major powers of the
ancient world and subjugated Armenia
for centuries.
The art of carpet weaving is well-known in the world as
Persian Carpet. Even though historically Armenia was the birthplace of this
industry, there is no mention of it anywhere. Because Persia was an
aggressive empire, it has been able to dominate the world with its carpet
industry.
It has been to our detriment that we have not dominated the
nations around us. Too bad that we have not thrown our weight and might around.
History shows that with our gentle stance we have not achieved any greatness.
We were left in the margins and ignored.
Let us consider another very undeserving power in our
neighborhood, Turkey.
Observe that the leader of that genocidal country stands proudly next to
President Biden during international conferences, but Armenia’s Prime Minister is begging the
international community to feel sorry for Artsakh and Armenia. After
seven months, his plea is futile in lifting the Artsakh blockade.
No one likes or respects a beggar. The powerless has no place
in the family of nations. The best thing that the international community will
do is throw a few tokens of mercy in Armenia’s direction, as has the
State Department.
Karekin Nejdeh wrote: Justice is enacted through the barrel
of a gun. If you are weak, then you deserve what happens to you.
In another stanza, Baruyr Sevag wrote: “As a nation we have
seen many tribulations and death, but we have taken all the mishaps with stride
and good humor.” He declared: “We have never given up or surrendered to our enemies.
We know how to become a menace like a sword toward our enemy.” This is the time
to become tough and forceful. Let us put on hold our extravagances and
expenditures, such as lavish parties and celebrations. We must direct every
cent of our budget towards arms production and building the Armenian army. Most
urgent is weapons manufacturing factories. There must be extensive cooperation
with the Diaspora to secure the borders. Armenia’s population must be
trained in using weapons for self-defense in case of a surprise attack.
Long ago, Baruyr Sevag wrote: “Generations know thy selves.”
Yes, we should know who we are. We must stop believing the destructive
propaganda of our Northern enemy and the lies that are spewed by our Eastern
enemy.
Our enemy is more afraid of the self-aware Armenian than the
gun.
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3- Armenian Archbishop of Iran condemns Quran burning in Europe
(Iran
Front Page)—Sebouh Sarkissian, Prelate and Archbishop of the Armenian Diocese
of Tehran, has strongly condemned the burning of the Holy Quran in Sweden and Denmark.
Sarkissian described the silence of Western governments,
particularly European countries, toward the “inhumane” act as “regrettable”.
He said those governments hide behind the concept of freedom
of speech when they approve of such sacrilegious acts as the burning of the
Quran.
“We vehemently condemn this practice and [we believe] this
act is not forgivable”, said the archbishop of the Armenian Diocese of Tehran.
Mr. Sarkissian added that everybody must respect the
religious sanctities of other people.
He supported the demand by leader of Iran’s Islamic
Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei for the handover of the man who burned
the Quran to Muslim countries for trial at a competent and fair court.
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4- Melany
Nazarian Opens Vegan Bakery in East Hollywood
By Allie Mitchell
(VegOut)—The Moody Vegan got its start in 2020 as a cottage
bakery operating out of owner Melany Nazarian’s home. Nazarian and her husband
delivered matcha crinkle cookies, lemon olive oil cakes, coffee cakes, and
other baked goods to customers around the LA area until expanding to a food
truck in September of 2022. But not even a month into operation, the Moody
Vegan food truck unfortunately got damaged in an accident. “After the
unfortunate event with the truck, I wanted to find a way to put myself out
there again. Since we were not in operation for long with the truck, I feel
like a lot of people who were interested in visiting never got the chance to. I
missed interacting with customers and hearing about and seeing how my desserts
made their moods better. I miss the reactions from non-vegans, ‘I can’t believe
it’s vegan!’ A brick-and-mortar has always been a dream of mine, but now it’s
coming to fruition,” said Nazarian.
This new space allows The Moody Vegan to expand offerings.
They’ll serve fan-favorite items like vegan cookies, coffee cake, banana bread,
blondies, and refreshing iced teas. In addition, the bakery will serve their
namesake a la mode menu items—called Mood Swings. New items to grace the menu
include fruit smoothies, protein smoothies, milkshakes, Armenian espresso, and
savory dishes in the realm of breakfast burritos, loaded fries, and avocado
toast.
The Moody Vegan will open in East
Hollywood on the corner of Sunset and Normandie, in the former
space of two vegan establishments—The Gray Zebra and Gegen. “I’m excited to
join the community in East Hollywood and hope
the area welcomes us kindly. I’m excited for the opportunity to continue
keeping the space 100% vegan, but by introducing a new concept,” shared
Nazarian. After a soft-opening, official hours will be announced on
www.themoodyvegan.com
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