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DT: USC has failed its Armenian students

October 7, 2023March 12, 2026 Emil Lazarian

The quiet atmosphere from the USC student body during an Armenian genocide in Artsakh is a sign that the Western Establishment has brainwashed us. Things must change and we students should all be expressing solidarity with our Armenian siblings.

By ARJUN BHARGAVA

October 6, 2023

(Arjun Bhargava / Daily Trojan)

“The world has just been going on, but it stopped for the Armenian people … mentally, we’re just not there,” said Suzie Burushyan, an Armenian graduate student at California State University, Los Angeles and a representative of the All-Armenian Student Association.

The Armenian community has been struck by violence, constant mourning, exhaustion and an inability to live life normally. And what have we done as a student community? Nothing.

“I have been feeling like a zombie the past two weeks, and my classmates around me just haven’t really acknowledged that,” Burushyan continued.

Last Friday, about 50 Armenian students protested USC’s public diplomacy event with Turkish Ambassador Hasan Murat Mercan and the Azerbaijani special counsel. USC ignored student requests to cancel the event, despite the Turkish-backed ethnic cleansing of Armenians by Azerbaijani forces in the region Nagorno-Karabakh (called Artsakh by the Armenian community).

In short: USC hosted two countries who’ve been actively providing military support to fund mass murder and displacement of Armenians — Turkey and Azerbaijan. Business as usual for USC.

By 3 p.m. when I circled Annenberg Hall, the Armenian protest group had dwindled. They seemed utterly exhausted. They had spent hours begging for their existence to be respected, demanding that these officials who have a hand in sponsoring these policies not be welcomed to campus.

Why was this genocide not acknowledged in the face of officials meant to represent the interests of these genocidal countries? Depends on who you ask. Armenian students — and those privy to the violent mechanisms of the West — think this was strategic.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if USC was looking just for some money, and overlooked trauma to get to that money,” said Burushyan, who works with Armenian students from USC regularly, in response to the event held by USC.

Others could argue money wasn’t involved. But either way, there is a gross, inhumane irony in USC using violent force against students protesting the ethnic cleansing of their own families.

Armenian protesters were tended with violent shoves from the Department of Public Safety and L.A. Police Department officers. They were silenced through the threat of force. Meanwhile, thousands of their classmates walked by, gazed, spectated and ultimately kept walking.

“Public diplomacy is important because it fosters the perceptions that influence the international attitudes towards a country,” said Christine Almadjian, a USC alum who received a minor in resistance to genocide.

“When you have a country like Turkey that’s promoting Azerbaijan’s actions, supporting them in their efforts and projecting this false image of progress, soundness and good conduct, it’s incredibly problematic,” continued Almadjian, an L.A.-born Armenian who has worked at length for Armenian causes like the Center for Truth and Justice and the All-Armenian Student Association.

This obfuscation of ethnic cleansing and its effects cannot be denied. As students living in the West, as queer, Indigenous or people of color, we cannot be complacent in this ethnic cleansing. Let’s remember USC’s status as a self-proclaimed global influence. Does what we say during a mass genocide not matter? Does it not bear influence?

We must mobilize for an apology from USC during this humanitarian crisis. Acknowledgement is the first step to solidarity with Armenians, something that has been chronically underachieved.

“It especially hurts when I don’t hear my professors or department professors acknowledging it … Solidarity is rare for Armenian people. We don’t get solidarity,” Burushyan said. She also said she believes Armenians should be given accommodations, such as assignment extensions, during this time of grief.

Armenian students have emphasized that it matters that students of all backgrounds are loud about this crisis. To show their support, students should consume and share credible journalism that covers these stories directly from the region.

Interviewees cited Armenian Weekly, Civil Net, @zartonkmedia, @ayfwest, and @theusarmenian on Instagram as credible sources to track the story.

Many Western news outlets have called the Armenian people native to the Artsakh region “separatists.” This illusionary use of wording demonstrates the West’s vested interest in denying the existence of this modern-day ethnic cleansing.

We must all stand in solidarity with our Armenian siblings. I denounce USC for its erasure and heinous dismissal of the genocide that Armenians are experiencing. I, as all students should, pledge to use my skills and abilities to provide support for the Armenian community.

We must disrupt the ignorance of this violence. We will not stand complacent in the ethnic cleansing of Armenians. We must hold space during this time of complex grief as Armenians grapple with immense pain, sadness, isolation and anger concurrently.

As Burushyan put it, “Some people might be able to adapt to life. But, I won’t be the same ever again.”

Arjun Bhargava is a junior inciting discourse on pop, sex, power and art. Their column, “The Girls are Gagged,” runs every other Friday.

EU seeks to revive Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks, aid Yerevan

October 7, 2023March 12, 2026 Ara Felekian

Reuters

Oct 5 2023

By Andrew Gray

GRANADA, Spain, Oct 5 (Reuters) – The European Union on Thursday invited the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for talks to try to revive a peace process thrown into crisis by an Azerbaijani military operation that prompted more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee Nagorno-Karabakh.

Charles Michel, the president of the European Council of EU leaders, said he had invited Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to meet in Brussels by the end of October.

“We believe in diplomacy. We believe in political dialogue,” Michel told reporters as he announced the meeting at a summit in the Spanish city of Granada of the European Political Community, a forum of more than 40 countries.

Aliyev snubbed a proposed meeting with Pashinyan, Michel and the leaders of France and Germany at the summit. But Michel said he expected both sides to attend the Brussels talks, noting Baku had said it would take part in future EU-mediated meetings.

At the summit, leaders also pledged support for Armenia as it grapples with the fallout of the Azerbaijani military operation last month to seize control of the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, mainly populated by ethnic Armenians.

Many EU leaders have condemned the Azerbaijani operation and some governments have called for the bloc to consider tough measures against Baku, which has insisted it took legitimate action to regain control of a part of its sovereign territory.

The European Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday accusing Baku of “ethnic cleansing” and urging the EU to impose sanctions on Azerbaijani officials responsible for ceasefire violations and human rights abuses in Nagorno-Karabakh.

But diplomats say they do not see a consensus among EU countries for sanctions against Azerbaijan, a growing supplier of oil and gas to the EU as the bloc pivots away from Russian energy following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Given their disagreements on Azerbaijan, leaders instead focused on help for Armenia, such as a boost in humanitarian aid and pledges of economic and political support as Yerevan tries to distance itself from traditional ally Russia.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU would provide another 5.25 million euros ($5.53 million) in emergency aid, on top of 5.2 million announced, to alleviate the plight of those who fled from Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia.

After meeting Pashinyan in Granada, Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared “unwavering support to the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of Armenia”.

That statement reflected Armenian fears that Azerbaijan may launch a military assault on its territory. Azerbaijan has insisted it has no intention of any such operation.

“Azerbaijan supports direct and bilateral dialogue and negotiations on the process of normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia and the peace treaty talks,” Hikmet Hajiyev, Aliyev’s foreign policy adviser, posted on social media platform X. ($1 = 0.9495 euros)

Reporting by Andrew Gray; Editing by Alex Richardson

https://www.reuters.com/world/eu-seeks-revive-armenia-azerbaijan-peace-talks-aid-yerevan-2023-10-05/

Tensions over Armenian crisis in Azerbaijan boil over in reportedly violent protest at USC

October 7, 2023March 12, 2026 Eduard Nalbandian

Los Angeles Times

Oct 5 2023

BY CHRISTIAN MARTINEZSTAFF WRITER

OCT. 5, 2023 12:17 PM PT

The fall of Nagorno-Karabakh, the separatist region of Azerbaijan populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, has spurred condemnation and anger in Southern California, home to a large population of Armenian Americans.

After the long-running conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated in recent years, igniting further protests, Azerbaijan took back the enclave in a lightning blitz last month — leading tensions in L.A. to boil over into violence at one of the latest demonstrations.

On Friday, Armenian protesters at USC allegedly attacked Turkish diplomats, including Turkish Ambassador to the U.S. Hasan Murat Mercan, who had spoken at an event sponsored by the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, according to video posted by a Turkish reporter.

Turkey has been a vocal supporter of Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh, where it has bolstered the nation’s military.

Video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, purportedly shows Armenian protesters assaulting members of the Turkish Embassy, according to Burak Dogan, a reporter for a conservative Turkish outlet with close ties to the administration of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. One man is seen throwing liquid at a diplomat while another man pushes a person and kicks a rolling backpack.

Los Angeles police said major crimes detectives were investigating two reports of battery with possible hate crime enhancements and a report of criminal threats in connection with the incident. No arrests have been made.

USC officials declined to comment and referred all questions to the LAPD.

The Turkish Embassy blamed the clash on “radical Armenian groups,” with protests that included “verbal and physical assaults against our delegation,” it said in a statement on X.

“All legal avenues will be pursued against the perpetrators of physical violence directed at our delegation,” the embassy said.

Turkish graduate students at USC said the incident “deeply affected our sense of security and belonging.”

“The growing negative attitude towards those of Turkish origin is a cause for serious concern,” the Turkish Graduate Students Assn. at USC wrote in an Instagram post. “We fervently appeal to Turkish institutions and officials to address this issue with the gravity it demands.”

The Armenian Students Assn. of USC distanced itself from the reportedly violent protesters and condemned their actions, saying in a statement that students “exercised exclusively peaceful tactics of civil disobedience and did not partake in non-peaceful acts.”

The association said it had voiced concerns to USC about the event, a conference on the role of public diplomacy in Turkish foreign policy.

“Today and this week, USC subjected its Armenian student population to unimaginable cruelty,” the association said. “In our period of mourning, USC Annenberg not only refused to cancel an event celebrating Turkish foreign policy but also responded to student efforts … with excessive use of force.”

Video posted on Instagram by the Armenian Youth Federation — Western United States showed pro-Armenian protesters fighting with campus police officers outside Wallis Annenberg Hall.

In late September, Azerbaijan waged a military campaign in Nagorno-Karabakh, an area known to Armenians as the Republic of Artsakh.

Separatists were faced with a much larger military force and a continuing blockade that starved them of supplies, the Associated Press reported. They quickly capitulated, with leaders saying they would dissolve their internationally unrecognized government by year’s end.

Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians, fearing ethnic cleansing, have fled Nagorno-Karabakh.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-10-05/turkish-diplomats-reportedly-attacked-at-usc-by-armenian-protesters

Armenian Americans say another genocide is underway in Nagorno-Karabakh, rally for U.S. action

October 7, 2023March 12, 2026 Greg Madatian

Los Angeles Times

Oct 5 2023

OCT. 5, 2023 12:20 PM PT

Ethnic Armenians are fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh over the border to Armenia, as Azerbaijan asserts full control over the enclave Armenians call Artsakh.

Salpi Ghazarian is the special initiatives director at USC’s Institute of Armenian Studies, and she joined Lisa McRee with more on the conflict and what it means to the Southland’s Armenian community.

Video at https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/armenia-nagorno-karabakh-latt-123

EU Parliament accuses Baku of ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Nagorno-Karabakh

October 7, 2023March 12, 2026 Hunanian Jack

euronews

Oct 5 2023

By Kristina Harazim with AFP, AP

The European Parliament approved a resolution saying it ”considers that the current situation amounts to ethnic cleansing and strongly condemns threats and violence committed by Azerbaijani troops.”

EU legislators on Thursday accused Azerbaijan of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” against the Armenian residents of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region and urged EU member states to impose sanctions on Baku.

Azerbaijan has rejected the claim and said it wants Armenians to stay.

Baku pledged to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians, however, most of the population fled after Azerbaijan took back the region in a lightning offensive last month.

Azerbaijan has rejected the claim and said it wants Armenians to stay.

Baku pledged to respect the rights of ethnic Armenians, however, most of the population fled after Azerbaijan took back the region in a lightning offensive last month.

https://www.euronews.com/2023/10/05/eu-parliament-accuses-baku-of-ethnic-cleansing-in-nagorno-karabakh

Armenians who fled Turkish rule decades ago despair over Nagorno-Karabakh. ‘This appears to be our fate’

October 7, 2023March 12, 2026 Anna Tamamian

Los Angeles Times
Oct 6 2023

BY NABIH BULOSFOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

ANJAR, Lebanon — Hilda Doumanian stood in the main hall of the Anjar museum, scanning the glass cases holding items her ethnic Armenian forebears salvaged from their lands before they escaped to Lebanon more than eight decades ago.

“This appears to be our fate: to be forcibly displaced every few decades,” she said, walking up to one of the displays: A collection of rust-encrusted kitchenware and bundles of braided silk from a village loom. Ancient-looking rifles. Religious vessels. Bibles so old their pages appeared more suspended dust than paper.

“The Armenian genocide was the first genocide of the 20th century,” she said, slowly shaking her head in resignation, referring to the 1915 genocide by the Ottoman Empire.

“Now in the 21st century we see the first genocide, and it’s Armenians again.”

A gardener tends to the plants at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in the historic town of Anjar in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley. The memorial commemorates the mass killings of Armenians as part of the genocide under the Ottoman Empire in 1915. (Joseph Eid / AFP via Getty Images)

On Doumanian’s mind was the exodus taking place over the last two weeks from what many Armenians see as their ancestral homelands — a further erasure of their history.

More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians, fearing ethnic cleansing at the hands of their Azerbaijani adversaries, have abandoned their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh, the mountainous enclave inside Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders where they had established their self-declared state.

WORLD & NATION

Amid fury over Nagorno-Karabakh, could Armenia’s government fall next?

Sept. 27, 2023

In the more than 30 years of its existence, the Republic of Artsakh, not formally recognized by any nation, had established the trappings of a country — a government, a standing army, a flag. But it all crumbled before a withering Azerbaijani blitzkrieg last month, with the enclave’s leaders forced to surrender and announce the republic’s dissolution by the end of the year.

Though Azerbaijan’s government offered to integrate Nagorno-Karabakh’s ethnic Armenian population as equal citizens, most, unwilling to countenance Azerbaijani rule, fled into Armenia in a refugee convoy that at its peak stretched more than 60 miles. Fewer than a thousand remain behind. Those who fled cite the Azeris’ decades-old animus toward Armenians and the triumphalist rhetoric of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for their distrust, no matter what Azerbaijan says.

For millions in Armenia and the diaspora, the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, and the long-held dream of constructing a state on Armenian homeland, was a blow. The shock resonates in a personal way in Anjar, whose residents are almost all ethnic Armenians whose ancestors fled here from Musa Dagh, or Moses Mountain, a territory in what is now southern Turkey.

An ethnic Armenian woman from Nagorno-Karabakh carries her suitcase to a tent camp after arriving in Goris, Armenia. (Vasily Krestyaninov / Associated Press)

When the people of Musa Dagh heard of the coming genocidal campaign in 1915, they refused to obey Turkish authorities’ command to leave their houses in the mountains. They resisted for a month and a half, losing 18 people before a French naval vessel rescued and took them to Egypt, where they stayed for four years, returning after the Ottoman Empire’s loss in World War I.

In 1939, when French authorities controlling the area under a postwar mandate handed it to Turkey, the inhabitants of Musa Dagh faced yet another agonizing choice: Accept Turkish control or leave. Fearing a repeat of the bloodshed in 1915, they were escorted out by French troops to settle in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, on land bought from an Ottoman feudal lord.

WORLD & NATION

‘Staying, for us, is impossible.’ Thousands of ethnic Armenians flee Nagorno-Karabakh

Sept. 26, 2023

“We refused to live under the Turks, because we knew they would do the same thing as before,” Doumanian said.

Watching a new wave of displacement hit Armenians brought back memories of long-held pain, said Isabel Kendirjian, a bedridden but alert 90-year-old who still remembers coming to Anjar when she was 6.

“It’s the same thing that happened to us. This is how we felt back then,” she said.

“They gave us eight days to leave Musa Dagh. We took everything we could and went on the buses to here,” she said. “There was nothing. Very few trees. We lived in tents.”

The new Anjaris stayed in those tents for roughly two years while authorities built up the town, organizing it into six neighborhoods, each named after a village in Musa Dagh. The houses the French provided were single-room structures measuring 12 square feet along with a bathroom.

“Four people, 20 people, it didn’t matter. Everyone was in one room,” Doumanian said.”We still call them beit Faransi, a French house, to this day.”

Tensions between Muslim Turks and Christian Armenians date to the days of the Ottoman Empire, but the war for Nagorno-Karabakh was rooted in the fall of a more contemporary empire: the Soviet Union.

In 1988, inside the roiling Soviet landscape, the enclave’s ethnic Armenian majority chose to secede from one Soviet republic, Azerbaijan, and unite with another, Armenia. The move sparked an ethnic conflict with Azeris that saw massacres and pogroms on both sides, and an estimated million displaced people, mostly Azeris.

Six years later, by which time the Soviet Union had collapsed, the ethnic Armenians won. They claimed Nagorno-Karabakh (which Armenians call Artsakh) and its surrounding districts in what other nations viewed as a violation of international law.

Donations poured in from the Armenian diaspora, including from the the late California businessman and philanthropist Kirk Kerkorian, whose largesse helped funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to fund schools and a major highway in the fledgling republic. Stop-start negotiations over the years never got anywhere.

In the meantime, Azerbaijan had used its vast oil and gas riches to retool its army. Armenia’s confidence in its ability to keep the status quo in Nagorno-Karabakh, not to mention its contempt for an enemy it had long dismissed as cowardly, meant that it was woefully unprepared when Azerbaijan launched an assault in 2020 and snatched back most of the land it lost.

A cease-fire guaranteed by Russia, Armenia’s main patron, was to be the prelude to a peace treaty. But tensions continued, culminating in Azerbaijan blockading the territory in December, then launching a lightning onslaught last month that routed the Artsakh Republic’s army. Moscow, preoccupied with its war on Ukraine and displeased with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s recent overtures to the West, stood by as Azerbaijan pursued its campaign.

Pashinyan, aware of his military’s limitations and with little diplomatic backing, refused to intervene, infuriating many Armenians.

Varian Khoshian, the mayor of Anjar, feels ashamed at the loss. His passion about the concept of Artsakh runs so deep that he named his son — now an officer in the Lebanese army — after it.

He blamed the rout on Pashinyan and his policy of antagonizing Armenia’s traditional ally, Russia, for the West’s sake, pointing to another sign of fraying ties with Moscow that came Tuesday when Armenia’s parliament ratified the International Criminal Court’s founding Rome Statute.

Because the court in March issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for the war in Ukraine, the ratification means Armenia would have to arrest Putin if he stepped on Armenian soil. The Kremlin called the decision “incorrect,” a position with which Khoshian agreed.

“We had a strong umbrella. We like the West, sure, but we got a smaller umbrella from America that doesn’t cover us,” he said.

During Lebanon’s 15-year civil war, Khoshian learned to work with groups he didn’t like, but it was for the good of Anjar; Pashinyan should have done the same, the mayor said.

“I don’t love the Russians. But I need them for my homeland,” Khoshian said. “That’s how you have to think. Otherwise you lose.”

Despite all that, he insisted the war for Nagorno-Karabakh was not over.

“I can’t give up. We will come back. We have to,” he said. “Those lands are the property of our ancestors.”

And it was more than just a matter of emotions.

“We know the value of Artsakh, its strategic location for Armenia,” Khoshian said.

Azerbaijan, he continued, was intent on taking parts of southern Armenia for a land corridor linking its territory to Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan’s exclave on Armenia’s southwestern side.

“It’s the first domino. Once Artsakh falls, you’ll find other Armenian cities in the south falling.”

Armenians have been demanding a stronger military response, with protests among diaspora groups in Southern California and frequent demonstrations in Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, against Pashinyan and what many see as his capitulation.

In Armenian-dominated neighborhoods in Beirut, graffiti targets Azerbaijan’s president, Aliyev, and his top ally, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The stenciled graffiti calls Aliyev a killer and declares that Karabakh will always be Armenian. Lebanon’s main Armenian party held a demonstration in front of the Azerbaijani Embassy that turned violent. In Anjar, high schoolers had their own anti-Turkish protest, carrying placards with Erdogan’s face and chanting their support for Artsakh.

Yessayi Havatian, an agricultural supplies merchant and Anjar historian, wondered whether the future fate of Karabakh Armenians would be to go to war again, or whether they would become like the Armenians of Musa Dagh, cut off from their ancestral lands.

“Our people thought of going back. For 14 years they refused to plant orchards on the land here. Why? Because they said, ‘We’re not going to stay that long.’ They believed they would go home,” Havatian said.

Whatever Karabakh Armenians choose, he added, it was clear that Armenians couldn’t pursue the war as they had in the past.

“We the Armenians made a mistake: We relied on someone other than us to defend us. The world watched our people forcibly displaced and did nothing. And no one will do anything,” he said.

“No one will defend Armenia other than the Armenians. That’s the solution.”

UK Gov’t: Concern regarding situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia: UK statement to the OSCE

October 7, 2023March 12, 2026 Emil Lazarian

GOV.UK

The Government of the United Kingdom

Oct 5 2023

Speech

Deputy Ambassador Deirdre Brown says the UK remains seriously concerned about the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and significant refugee flows into Armenia.

The UK continues to have serious concerns about the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and the significant refugee flows from Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia.

It is vital that international humanitarian organisations have independent access into Nagorno-Karabakh, so they can assess humanitarian need and respond appropriately. We therefore welcome Azerbaijan’s decision last week to allow UN agencies into Nagorno-Karabakh, to complement ongoing efforts by the ICRC.

On 29 September, the UK government announced that it is giving £1 million to the ICRC to support those efforts. Alongside contributions from others, this will help fund life-saving medication, healthcare, and other essential support to those affected by the recent conflict.

We are also mindful of the significant pressures the movement of over 100,000 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia will place on support services provided by the Armenian government and international aid organisations. We continue to liaise with the UN, ICRC and others to assess humanitarian need in both Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia to determine what further assistance may be required.

We continue to urge both Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue negotiations and to do all they can to reduce tensions and avoid further escalation, including through Azerbaijan making clear its respect for Armenia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and for the rights and security of the remaining ethnic Armenian community in Nagorno-Karabakh. On 28 September the UK’s Minister for Europe, Leo Docherty, had calls with both Armenian Foreign Minister Mirzoyan and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Bayramov and made these points.

We will continue to monitor the situation, in close cooperation with our international partners, and hope to see positive steps soon to continue the substantive negotiations that are the only way to secure a lasting peace, and stability and security for the region.

Published 5 October 2023

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/concern-regarding-situation-in-nagorno-karabakh-and-armenia-uk-statement-to-the-osce

RFE/RL Armenian Service – 10/06/2023

October 7, 2023October 7, 2023 Emil Lazarian

                                        Friday, October 6, 2023
EU Official Visits Armenia, Discusses Aid To Karabakh Refugees
        • Anush Mkrtchian
Armenia - EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic talks to refugees 
from Nagorno-Karabakh, October 6, 2023.
A senior European Union official visited Armenia on Friday to discuss details of 
the EU’s humanitarian assistance to the more than 100,000 residents of 
Nagorno-Karabakh who have fled to the country since last month’s Azerbaijani 
military offensive.
“I came to Armenia to show the full solidarity of the European Union to Armenia, 
the Armenian people and, in particular, the people displaced from Karabakh,” EU 
Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic said after meeting with 
Armenian officials and some refugees. He said they “can count on the EU’s full 
support in this difficult situation.”
“We very quickly mobilized more than 5 million euros in humanitarian aid, 
doubled it a few days later, and as of today have provided more than 10 million 
euros ($11 million) in humanitarian aid … In addition, we have mobilized the 
European Union's stock of humanitarian aid supplies, which will be sent to 
Armenia in the next few hours,” Lenarcic told a joint news conference with 
Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Khachatrian.
On top of that, he said, the refugees will receive separate aid from 13 EU 
member states, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
ARMENIA - Five Armenian families, who fled Nagorno-Karabakh following the Azeri 
offensive, are seen settled in a house given to them by a neighbor in Goris 
until they find a new home, October 4, 2023
The head of the EU’s executive Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, discussed this 
assistance with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian on Thursday during a meeting held 
on the sidelines of an EU summit in the Spanish city of Granada. The Commission 
confirmed after the talks that it will also allocate 15 million euros to help 
the Armenian government buy food and fuel and address other “socio-economic 
needs.”
“The EU stands with Armenia,” tweeted von der Leyen. “We condemn Azerbaijan’s 
military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
It is not clear whether some of the EU aid will be used for providing the 
refugees with adequate housing, their most urgent need. The Armenian government 
claims to have accommodated half of them in hotels, disused public buildings and 
empty village houses. It says the others have told government officials that 
they will stay with their relatives or have other places of residence in Armenia.
Armenia - Elmira Nersisian, a refugee from Nagorno Karabakh, visits an aid 
center in Parakar, October 6, 2023
However, there have been multiple reports of refugees remaining homeless days 
after their evacuation from Karabakh. RFE/RL’s Armenian Service spoke to several 
such persons outside a government aid center in Parakar, a village just outside 
Yerevan. They as well as other refugees went there to inquire about a one-off 
cash payment of 100,000 drams ($245) promised by the government to every 
displaced Karabakh Armenian.
“We are living in a church courtyard, we have no relatives here,” said Elmira 
Nersisian, a 74-year-old woman from Stepanakert who fled to Armenia with her 
disabled daughter. “We didn’t know what to do, who to apply to.”
“If they give us this [financial] aid, we will get by until I find a job,” she 
said, adding that government officials have pledged to provide them with 
temporary housing.
The government has also pledged to provide every refugee renting an apartment or 
house up to 50,000 drams per month for at least six months. The money can only 
be spent on housing rent and utility fees.
Russia Reaffirms Plans For Consulate In Key Armenian Region
Armenian - Russian border guards stationed in Syunik province are inspected by 
Russian Ambassador Sergei Kopyrkin, May 24, 2022.
Amid the increasingly uncertain future of Russian-Armenian relations, Russia has 
reaffirmed plans to open a consulate in Armenia’s southeastern Syunik province 
bordering Iran and Azerbaijan.
The Russian Foreign Ministry first announced those plans in late May, saying 
that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian discussed and welcomed them during talks 
with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A delegation of ministry officials 
visited Syunik’s capital for that purpose in June.
The Russian Embassy in Yerevan reported on Friday that another “advance team” of 
Russian diplomats visited Syunik and met with the mayor of another provincial 
town, Meghri, on Thursday. It said they discussed “prospects for the quick 
opening” of the consulate.
The Russian mission in Kapan “will contribute to the strengthening of 
Russian-Armenian relations and the stabilization of the situation in the 
region,” the embassy added in a statement. It will provide consular services to 
about a thousand Russian nationals currently based in Syunik.
The bulk of them are soldiers and border guards who were deployed by Moscow 
during and after the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. The deployment was aimed at 
helping the Armenian military defend the strategic region against possible 
Azerbaijani attacks.
Syunik is Armenia’s sole region bordering Iran. Azerbaijani leaders have been 
demanding that Yerevan open a special corridor connecting Azerbaijan to its 
Nakhichevan exclave through Syunik. The Armenian side says it can only agree to 
conventional transport links between the two states.
Iran, which opened a consulate in Kapan a year ago, is also strongly opposed to 
an extraterritorial corridor for Nakhichevan. It has repeatedly warned Baku 
against attempting to strip the Islamic Republic of the common border and 
transport links with Armenia.
While voicing support for Armenian sovereignty over any road or railway link 
passing through Syunik, Russia has stopped short publicly issuing similar 
warnings to Azerbaijan. Its relationship with Armenia has steadily deteriorated 
since 2020 due to what Pashinian’s government sees as a lack of Russian support 
in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The rift between the two longtime allies deepened further last month after 
Moscow decried “a series of unfriendly steps” taken by Yerevan. Those include 
Pashinian’s declaration that Armenia’s heavy reliance on Russia for defense and 
security has proved a “strategic mistake.” The statement raised more questions 
about the South Caucasus country’s continued membership in Russian-led blocs.
Russia Signals Peacekeepers’ Withdrawal From Karabakh
        • Nane Sahakian
A view through a car window shows a board displaying a Russian state flag and an 
image of President Vladimir Putin in Stepanakert after exodus of ethnic 
Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh, October 2, 2023.
Russia gave on Friday more indications that it will withdraw its peacekeeping 
forces from Nagorno-Karabakh following the Azerbaijani takeover of the territory 
and the mass exodus of its ethnic Armenian population.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday night that the peacekeepers have 
dismantled most of their observation posts along the Karabakh “line of contact” 
that existed until Azerbaijan’s September 19-20 military offensive.
Citing an unnamed diplomatic source, the official TASS news agency reported the 
following morning that a Russian military delegation will visit Yerevan later on 
Friday to discuss with Armenian officials time frames for the Russian withdrawal 
from Karabakh.
The spokesman for Armenia’s Defense Ministry, Aram Torosian, said, however, that 
he has “no information” about the visit. No Russian-Armenian talks on the issue 
have been scheduled so far, he said.
Russia deployed the 2,000-strong peacekeeping contingent to Karabakh in line 
with a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement that stopped the 2020 
Armenian-Azerbaijani war. The Russian troops were due to stay there at least 
until November 2025.
A truck carrying ethnic Armenians fleeing Karabakh drives past a Russian armored 
vehicle in the Lachin corridor, September 26, 2023.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, indicated earlier 
this week that Moscow has no plans to pull them out of the region soon but will 
discuss the matter with Baku. Konstantin Zatulin, a pro-Armenian Russian 
lawmaker, pointed out, meanwhile, that the Russian peacekeepers “have nobody to 
protect anymore” because Karabakh’s practically entire population has fled to 
Armenia. Zatulin said the exodus, accompanied by the restoration of Azerbaijani 
control over Karabakh, is a “blow to Russia’s positions in the region.”
The Karabakh Armenians regarded the Russian military presence as their main 
security guarantee and expected the peacekeepers to defend their homeland in 
case of a large-scale Azerbaijani attack. However, Russian officials ruled out 
such intervention hours after the Azerbaijani army launched the offensive on 
September 19.
Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Thursday that the peacekeepers could 
not have thwarted the assault because Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian 
downgraded their mandate with his decision to recognize Azerbaijani sovereignty 
over Karabakh. Putin acknowledged that there are virtually no Armenians left in 
Karabakh.
EU Parliament Calls For Sanctions Against Azerbaijan
Nagorno-Karabakh - A satellite image shows empty streets of the city of 
Stepanakert, September 29, 2023.
The European Parliament has strongly condemned Azerbaijan’s military offensive 
in Nagorno-Karabakh, accused Baku of committing “ethnic cleaning” against the 
region’s Armenian population and called on the European Union to impose 
sanctions on Azerbaijani leaders.
In a non-binding resolution overwhelmingly passed late on Thursday, it also 
reiterated its earlier demands for the “withdrawal of Azerbaijan’s troops from 
the entirety of the sovereign territory of Armenia.”
The resolution says that the EU’s legislative body “condemns in the strongest 
terms the pre-planned and unjustified military attack by Azerbaijan against the 
Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.” The September 19-20 offensive, which paved the 
way for the restoration of Azerbaijani control over the region, represents a 
“gross violation of international law,” it says.
The ensuing mass exodus of Karabakh Armenians to Armenia “amounts to ethnic 
cleansing,” added the European Parliament. It went on to urge the EU’s executive 
bodies and member states to “adopt targeted sanctions against the individuals in 
the Azerbaijani Government responsible for multiple ceasefire violations and 
violations of human rights in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The sanctions require the unanimous support of all 27 member states. None of 
them -- including France, the main EU backer of Armenia -- has backed the idea 
so far. French President Emmanuel Macron said later on Thursday that punitive 
measures against Baku would be counterproductive at this point.
EU leaders also resisted calls to sanction Azerbaijan during its nine-month 
blockade of the Lachin corridor that preceded the offensive in Karabakh. 
Analysts linked their stance to a 2022 agreement to significantly increase the 
EU’s import of Azerbaijani natural gas. The head of the European Commission, 
Ursula von der Leyen, described Azerbaijan as a “key partner in our efforts to 
move away from Russian fossil fuels” when she signed the deal in Baku.
The European Parliament resolution “regrets” von der Leyen’s statement. It says 
that the EU must suspend oil and gas imports from Azerbaijan “in the event of 
military aggression against Armenian territorial integrity or significant hybrid 
attacks against Armenia’s constitutional order and democratic institutions.”
Reposted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2023 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

At an Oakland church, Armenians have been keeping their culture alive for 100 years

October 7, 2023March 12, 2026 Talar Tumanian

Oakland Side

Oct 5 2023

Parishioners at St. Vartan Apostolic Church will host the 68th annual Armenian Food Festival this weekend.

by Azucena RasillaOctober 5, 2023

It is an especially hot Wednesday morning in Oakland, but the community hall at St. Vartan Armenian Apostolic Church on Spruce Street is bustling. A group of about three dozen women and a handful of men are gathered around several tables, chatting and making sarmas, a mixture of rice, onions, and spices rolled into grape leaves. In the church’s commercial-grade kitchen, other women lay lettuce leaves in large pans where the sarmas will be cooked.

The meticulous work is just a small portion of what the community is preparing for its 68th annual Armenian Food Festival, taking place at the church on Oct. 6 and 7.

This year, a portion of the festival’s proceeds will be directed to the church’s humanitarian fund for ethnic Armenian refugees fleeing a conflict zone in a contested area of Azerbaijan.

For over 100 years, a large Armenian community has called Oakland and other parts of California home, driven here by conflicts past. In 1915, as World War I raged, Armenians suffered a genocide in the former Ottoman Empire in what is now Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost, causing an exodus of Armenians from the region who then sought refuge around the world, including in the Bay Area and other parts of California.

In the San Joaquin Valley, Armenians found work as grocers and dried fruit distributors. In Fresno, newly arrived immigrants went into farming and other businesses. By the 1930s, Armenians there “owned 40 percent of the county’s raisin acreage and represented 25 percent of its growers.”

In 1926, Armenians in Oakland established St. Vartan Armenian Apostolic Church at the corner of 23rd Avenue and E 17th St. When the parish formed, so did the Ladies Aid Society, a group of parishioners whose descendants have continued to carry forward Armenian culture and traditions.

As the community grew, so did the need for a larger church. In the early spring of 1955, two congregation members, Suren and Diana Toomajian, who lived on McKinley Avenue, spotted a house for sale on their corner at Spruce Street. The church purchased the property that May, and by April 7, 1957, the new St. Vartan church was ready to open its doors to parishioners.

“My mom [Diana] saw that the house across from theirs was for sale,” said Suzanne Vasgerdsian. “Right away, she called my dad and said, ‘We need to buy that lot for the church.’”

Diana Toomajian (right) and a friend posing in front of the home for sale that would later become St. Vartan Church. The second image is what the church looks now. Credit: Photo of Diana courtesy of her daughter. Photo of the church from Google maps. Reverend Father Krikor Zakaryan became the Parish Priest of St. Vartan Armenian Church in March 2020. Credit: Amir Aziz

Her father, Suren Toomajian, was a prominent divorce attorney in the East Bay. He was so well known that in the 1940s, San Francisco journalist Herb Caen dubbed him “The Great Separator.” Toomajian’s office was on the 18th floor of the Tribune Tower, and he held on to it until Oct. 17, 1989, the day of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

His wife Diana was a founding member of the Ladies Aid Society and a staple in all of the church’s activities.

“My parents held a big dinner to celebrate him being a lawyer for 60 years,” recalls Suzanne, “and [during a speech] he said, ‘We built the church and then I donated Diana to it.’”

The Toomajian family lived at their house across the street from the church from 1936 until Diana Toomajian’s passing in 2016. In the years since the passing of her parents, Suzanne has continued being an active member of the congregation and an organizer of cultural activities, including the yearly food festival.

“The Ladies Aid Society started cooking together at the church. They were all fabulous cooks,” Suzanne said. “That cemented everything for the activities of the church.”

Her daughter, Nicole Vasgerdsian, is just as involved. Vasgerdsian runs “grandma’s attic” out of the church’s basement, where parishioners donate items that are later sold at a bazaar at the church after Sunday services. All proceeds benefit the church and efforts to help families back in present-day Armenia.

“Armenians were encouraged to assimilate and not necessarily retain the language and the culture, but they always wanted to keep the church alive,” Vasgerdsian said. “That’s where they put their energy.”

Suzanne Vasgerdsian making sarmas for the food festival. Credit: Amir Aziz

Paul and Rose Agajan were also early founders of St. Vartan church, alongside the Toomajians. They moved to Oakland from Chicago in 1943, and their family has continued to be involved with the church through their daughter, Carol, her husband, George Rustigian, and now their granddaughter, Beth Rustigian Broussalian.

According to Beth, Oakland reminded her grandfather Paul of his beloved Istanbul, and it wasn’t long before the family was making its mark on the city’s food scene by expanding the Casper’s hot dogs chain after the original Kasper’s was started by another Armenian immigrant, Kasper Koojoolian. Agajan also owned Jack’s Hot Dogs, located at 11th and Franklin Streets, from 1943 until 1987.

Sylvia Gozurian is the second eldest member of the Ladies Aid Society, who moved to Fresno when she was 19 years old. “I moved from Istanbul because we weren’t treated so well,” Gozurian said.

Her husband, Masis Gozurian, once worked for the Boghosian brothers, who ran a rug manufacturing plant and managed the rug department at the Breuners Home Furnishings branch in Oakland. When the brothers asked the Gozurians to move to the East Bay so Masis could manage the plant, the couple moved to Oakland and later to San Leandro.

Many of the men who fled Istanbul during the genocide chose to change their names on the boat coming to the United States, said Beth, because they feared the Turks would track them down and force them back into their army. Sylvia Gozurian’s husband, whose last name was originally Gozuroglu, was one of them.

“Once I came to church, the women [of the Ladies Aid Society] grabbed me and I haven’t left,” Gozurian said. “I never want to leave. I love everybody here.”

Armenian items for sale at “grandma’s attic.” Credit: Amir Aziz

Today, it isn’t just Armenian immigrants who find a sense of community at St. Vartan; both Armenians and non-Armenians attend and are welcome at the church.

Beth, who is in charge of the logistics on festival prep days, said carrying the torch for her people’s legacy is crucial to the survival of Armenian history and heritage, especially at a time when Armenians in their ancestral lands are still experiencing conflict.

“We have to keep this church strong and vibrant. We have to keep our diaspora and community,” Beth said. “We are facing an existential crisis for Armenia. This is more important than ever because this may be all that’s left of Armenia.”

The 68th Armenian Food Festival takes place on Friday, Oct. 6, 5:30 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 7, 12 p.m. to 11 p.m., St. Vartan Church, 650 Spruce St.

EU seeks new talks on Nagorno-Karabakh, boosts aid to Armenia

October 7, 2023March 12, 2026 Edgar Tavakalian

Al Jazeera, Qatar

Oct 5 2023

European Council President Charles Michel says dialogue and diplomacy needed to resolve crisis.

The European Union has invited the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia to resume peace talks following Azerbaijan’s lightning military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh last month, which triggered the flight of tens of thousands of ethnic Armenians.

In a meeting of European leaders in the Spanish city of Granada on Thursday, European Council President Charles Michel said he invited Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to meet in Brussels this month.

“We believe in diplomacy. We believe in political dialogue,” Michel told reporters at the summit of the European Political Community, a forum including more than 40 countries.

Aliyev declined to attend the summit in Granada, where European leaders had hoped that Armenia and Azerbaijan could work to resolve tensions and reach an agreement over Nagorno-Karabakh.

At the summit, leaders also pledged support for Armenia as it grapples with the fallout of the Azerbaijani military operation last month to seize control of the enclave, mainly populated by ethnic Armenians.

Tens of thousands of ethnic Armenian residents have fled Nagorno-Karabakh to neighbouring Armenia since Armenian separatists were forced into a ceasefire on September 20 after a 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.

The European Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday accusing Baku of “ethnic cleansing”.

Many European leaders have expressed concern over the humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, and Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared their “unwavering support” for Armenia’s territorial integrity on Thursday after meeting with Pashinyan.

However, there does not appear to be consensus among European leaders over potential sanctions for Azerbaijan, an important source of oil and natural gas for the EU and an ally of the United States. France’s Macron said that while Azerbaijan seemed to have “a problem with international law”, steps such as sanctions would not be productive.

Leaders at the summit agreed to step up aid to Armenia, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying that the EU will provide $5.53m in emergency aid on top of a similar amount previously announced.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES