GLENDALE — The City of Glendale and the Library, Arts & Culture Department are pleased to announce the appointment of Tina Demirdjian as Glendale’s next Poet Laureate. Demirdjian’s appointment will begin in September, the position serves as an ambassador for Glendale’s rich culture and diversity, promoting the art of poetry.

As Poet Laureate, Demirdjian will develop workshops that engage community members of all ages and abilities in poetry writing, performance, and poetry appreciation. Demirdjian, a Glendale resident, says she is passionate about creating impact and strengthening communities through poetry, art, story, and the power of finding common ground, “Sometimes I change people’s minds: about themselves, about poetry and about each other.”

Demirdjian says she wants to be a bridge to amplify voices from the community, acknowledging the diversity of our city and highlighting the abundance of opportunities for experiencing poetry throughout its environs, “the potential of where and how poetry can be amplified in Glendale is an open field through installations in businesses and institutions which become transmitters of these voices.”

“We are excited to welcome Tina Demirdjian as Glendale’s next Poet Laureate,” said Library Director Lessa Pelayo-Lozada. “Tina’s work as a poet and artist has brought community members together through her workshops led at Brand Library, in her teaching in our local schools and at gallery spaces where she has exhibited her work; her appointment as our city’s Poet Laureate is an impactful step for the Poet Laureate program.”

Tina Demirdjian is the recipient of numerous grants, including two from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Durfee ARC grant, and the California Council for the Humanities. She is the author of “IMPRINT,” her first poetry collection, and a contributor to “Birthmark: A Bilingual Anthology of Armenian-American Poetry” and recently anthologized in “Remain In Light: Visions Of Homeland And Diaspora” by UC Regents.

Her work has appeared in Moria, High Performance, Texas Observer, The Midwest Poetry Review, and she has performed throughout Los Angeles. She is the owner of POETRY CONSULTS and is a facilitator, team-builder, and producer of events. Through her experience in schools, museums, libraries, She is also a Board Member of Brand Associates that supports the rich array of cultural, arts, and educational programming at the Brand Library & Art Center. In collaboration with art historian Valerie Taylor, she co-created ARTful Conversations at Brand Gallery to bridge community members with writing poetry using art in the exhibits as inspiration.and companies for 30 years she believes in the power of building and sustaining partnerships.

Demirdjian’s mission as a poet, educator, businesswoman, and culture bearer is to continue to engage and empower all communities to write, edit, and recite poetry using their experiences, observations, and connections to the past as a means to lead in their lives.

Glendale’s Poet Laureate Program began in 2023 after a grass roots call from the public. Tina Demirdjian succeeds Glendale’s first Poet Laureate, Raffi Joe Wartanian after three years of increasingly building an audience of attendance at Poetry Workshops through the library and publishing submitted poems to the Library, Arts & Culture’s annual poetry publication, Jewel City Anthology. Wartanian will hold his final Poetry Workshop in his role as Poet Laureate with the City of Glendale in September, while launching the third volume of Jewel City Anthology.

Learn more about Library, Arts & Culture’s Poet Laureate program as well as upcoming workshops online.

Founded in 1907, the Glendale Library, Arts & Culture Department includes eight neighborhood libraries including the Brand Library & Art Center, a regional visual arts and music library and performance venue housed in the historic 1904 mansion of Glendale pioneer Leslie C. Brand, and the Central Library, a 93,000 square foot center for individuals and groups to convene, collaborate and create.

The department also serves as the chief liaison to the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission which works to continually transform Glendale into an ever-evolving arts destination. Glendale Library Arts & Culture is supported in part through the efforts of the Glendale Library Arts & Culture Trust. For more information visit the website, or contact Library, Arts & Culture at (818) 548-2021 or via email at [email protected].

Known as the “Jewel City,” Glendale is the fourth largest city of Los Angeles County. With a population of almost 200,000, Glendale is a thriving cosmopolitan city that is rich in history, culturally diverse, and offers nearly 50 public parks & facilities, with easy access to a municipal airport. It is the home to a vibrant business community, with major companies in healthcare, entertainment, manufacturing, retail, and banking. For more information visit the website or follow on social media @MyGlendale.

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OSCE Secretay General Feridun H. Sinirlioğlu of Turkey makes a public address standing in front of a photo of Kemal Ataturk in 2023

Rights and Christian Groups Urge OSCE Official Clarify Remarks

The Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Feridun H. Sinirlioğlu of Turkey, in recent remarks publicized on various media outlets appeared willing to lend his office’s support to the campaign to remove Catholicos Karekin II spearheaded by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and his government.

While the provenance of Sinirlioğlu’s remarks is dubious, at best, nevertheless the top OSCE official made them.

Sinirlioğlu made the comments to Russian pranksters, who telephoned him and impersonated Pashinyan. The recording of the “phone call” has been circulating on some social media platforms, as well as various Russian media outlets since July 8.

Thinking that he was speaking to Pashinyan, Sinirlioğlu accused Catholicos Karekin II of politicizing the Armenian Apostolic Church. He then agreed to “look into” how the OSCE might support the person impersonating Pashinyan in the matter of removing the Catholicos.

The person impersonating Pashinyan asked for Sinirlioğlu’s support in the event of any public criticism, to which the OSCE Secretary General responded with “Okay, I’ll do my best, I’ll try.”

In a statement issued on Thursday, four human rights and religious organizations—the Armenian Center for Political Rights, the Helsinki Committee of Armenia, the Forum for Religious Freedom – Europe, and Christian Solidarity International—expressed their deep concern and condemned Sinirlioğlu for the statements he made and demanded immediate public clarification by the top OSCE official.

“We are conscious of the provenance of these remarks. They were obtained by Russian pranksters, who telephoned the Secretary General while impersonating Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The call was made public on July 8. These pranksters have a track record of targeting politicians and officials to secure statements on sensitive public matters. We do not condone deception of this kind. Nevertheless, while we recognise that the exchange was engineered, the Secretary General’s own words reveal a posture that cannot be reconciled with the responsibilities of his office,” the statement by the groups said.

After detailing the content of the recording, the four groups emphasized that at no point in the conversation did the “Secretary General object that the forced removal of a religious leader by the state would violate the very freedoms the OSCE is committed to uphold.”

“Principle VII of the Helsinki Final Act 1975 sets out the OSCE’s foundational commitment to “human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief.” That commitment has been reaffirmed repeatedly and is binding on all 57 participating states, including Armenia. The autonomy of religious organizations, and their freedom to govern their own internal and canonical affairs, lie at the heart of that guarantee. Since the Secretary General is charged with upholding this commitment, he should not be offering even qualified encouragement to a government bent on deposing the head of a church,” the statement explained.

“These remarks cannot be viewed in isolation. Since May 2025, the Armenian government has pursued a systematic and sustained campaign against the AAHC [Armenian Apostolic Church] as part of a broader attack on democracy and rule of law. Prime Minister Pashinyan has publicly called for the removal of Catholicos Karekin II, published a ‘roadmap’ setting out steps to depose him, and levelled unsubstantiated accusations against the Catholicos and senior clergy. Travel bans have been brought against the Catholicos and several bishops, and high-ranking clergymen have been detained on criminal charges that appear politically motivated. Taken together, these actions constitute a state-orchestrated effort to subordinate the Church to the government’s will, putting at risk the separation of church and state enshrined in Armenia’s Constitution,” the statement charged.

The four organizations stressed that the Armenian Apostolic Church “is no ordinary party to a political dispute. Since Armenia’s adoption of Christianity in 301 AD, the Church has played a critical role in preserving the Armenian language, culture and national identity, a role recognized under Article 18 of the Armenian Constitution as an ‘exclusive mission.’”

“Far from politicizing the Church—as the Secretary General claims—the Catholicos has sought to discharge this constitutional responsibility by defending the rights of the Armenian people, not least those ethnically cleansed from Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023. Any state-led effort to depose the Catholicos thus violates not only Armenia’s commitment to religious freedom, but also the country’s settled constitutional order,” the organizations went on to point out.

They called on Sinirlioğlu to publicly clarify and retract any suggestion that the OSCE would support the removal of the Catholicos or otherwise interfere in the internal governance of the Armenian Apostolic Church; reaffirm the OSCE’s commitment to protecting freedom of religion or belief in Armenia, consistent with its human dimension commitments; and engage with the Catholicos to ensure that the rights of the Church, its clergy and its faithful are fully respected.

“We stand ready to meet with the OSCE to share further information and our concerns, and we will continue to monitor the conduct of its leadership closely. The head of the OSCE should be a bulwark against the violation of religious freedom, not a willing accessory to it. On the evidence of these remarks, Secretary General Sinirlioğlu has failed that test, and he must now make plain where he stands,” the statement concluded.

The statement to the OSCE was signed by John Eibner President Christian Solidarity International; Rafael Ishkhanyan President Armenian Center for Political Rights; Ján Figeľ President Forum for Religious Freedom – Europe; and Siranush Sahakyan President Helsinki Committee of Armenia.

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Ruben Vardanyan addresses a court in Baku during his sham trial in 2025

An appeal was filed at the European Court of Human Rights regarding the case of former Artsakh State Minister Ruben Vardanyan, who is serving a 20-year sentence in a Baku prison after a sham trial, which found him guilty of unfounded charges.

Vardanyan was among Artsakh leaders who were captured following Azerbaijan’s brutal attack in 2023 that resulted in the forced displacement of the entire Armenian population there.

Siranush Sahakyan, head of the Center for International and Comparative Law, and representative of the interests of Armenian captives at the ECHR announced the filing on Wednesday, saying that she will be the lead attorney on the case.

The application details violations of eight articles of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, supported by comprehensive legal and factual arguments, Sahakyan outlined in her statement.

“The court did not read the judgment in its entirety. Later, from the verdict made available through his family, it became clear that Vardanyan was found ‘guilty’ on 41 counts, based on 21 articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Vardanyan’s individual guilt was not substantiated by facts or evidence in the verdict. Instead, the court concluded that the ‘criminal community,’ referring to the administration of the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh, had operated in Nagorno-Karabakh since 1988, and that Vardanyan joined this ‘community’ in December 2020, even though he was residing in Moscow at that time,” Sahakyan explained in the statement.

“The court interpreted Vardanyan’s assumption of a civilian administrative post as a violent seizure of power, his commercial and charitable activities as illegal entrepreneurship and financing of terrorism, and his entry into Nagorno-Karabakh through the Lachin Corridor as an illegal crossing of Azerbaijan’s state border,” Sahakyan added.

Unlike the other 15 Artsakh leaders who were tried separately, Vardanyan did not appeal the verdict, considering the trial staged and predetermined, and all domestic remedies ineffective. Indeed, it is impossible to protect one’s rights within a system that inherently denies the right to a fair trial. In these circumstances, he chose to seek justice through international legal mechanisms.

In an interview with News.am, Sahakyan said that “it is predicted that the military court’s verdict will be upheld” in the case of the 15 Artsakh leaders who appealed their cases.

“No court in Azerbaijan can serve as a mechanism for protecting the violated rights of ethnic Armenians, especially when dealing with any matter related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” Sahakyan explained.

She added that Vardanyan’s case was appealed to the ECHR, because “it is impossible to protect rights within a system that from the outset rejects justice and rights, and where the trial is a ceremony for carrying out the executive branch’s political decisions.”

She explained that she was able to review the Vardanyan’s verdict and “it immediately became clear why the sessions were held behind closed doors, without the participation of international observers and international media representatives.”

“Through the family, we gained access to the verdict, which was translated into English and submitted along with the relevant documents. We expect that the ECHR, in accordance with its procedures, will proceed with the complaint,” added Sahakyan.

“It is obvious that during the more than one-year preliminary investigation and the one-year trial, they [Azerbaijani authorities] actually failed to find any reasoning even remotely close to logical for the ‘charges’ they themselves had invented. We are dealing with an unprofessional, fragmented document that cannot withstand any professional criticism whatsoever, called a ‘verdict,’ on the basis of which our compatriots are, in essence, being held as illegal hostages in that country,” Sahakyan said.

The human rights attorney delineated in the News.am interview the violations of the European Convention on Human Rights pointed out by her in the case.

“First and foremost, this concerns the right to a fair trial guaranteed by Article 6 of the Convention. Moreover, the violations concern all three points of this article. The violation of this article alone already casts doubt on the entire judicial process and the legality of the verdicts rendered. Violations of certain other rights were also raised in the context of the prohibition of discrimination and the prohibition of restricting rights for political motives,” Sahakyan said.

The attorney explained that the military court in Baku characterized Vardanyan’s assumption of the Artsakh State Minister position as a “violent seizure of power”; his commercial and charitable activities as “illegal entrepreneurship and financing of terrorism”; and his entry into Nagorno-Karabakh via the Lachin Corridor as “illegal crossing” of Azerbaijan’s state border.

“At the same time, the verdict does not cite any specific order given by Vardanyan to kill, torture, displace, or attack the civilian population, nor does it confirm his personal participation in the incidents attributed to him,” said Sahakyan.

Sahakyan told New.am that she is confident that a ruling by the ECHR will not remain without consequence sooner or later, and “I am more than convinced that we have every basis for achieving a positive outcome at the ECHR.”

However, she lamented that her experience in recent years has shown the powerlessness of international institutions, since this same Azerbaijan has not implemented resolutions of either PACE or the European Parliament, has ignored numerous appeals, and has even disregarded decisions of the International Court of Justice.

“Such an attitude by Azerbaijan does not in the least bit prevent EU leaders Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas from calling Azerbaijan’s dictator an important partner,” Sahakyan said.

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At the initiative of the Coordinating Committee of the Diaspora Mobilization Conference, a follow-up online meeting was held on July 18, for participants of the inaugural conference that convened in Paris in April.

The meeting brought together conference participants from Armenia, Artsakh, and 25 countries across the Armenian Diaspora.

The meeting took place at a time when the Armenian people continue to confront the consequences of the forced depopulation of Artsakh, as well as serious challenges related to the protection of the collective rights of the people of Artsakh, the international pursuit of the Armenian Cause (Hai Tahd), the preservation of national and spiritual values, and the strengthening of the Diaspora’s united role. At the same time, the continuing democratic backsliding in Armenia has made the need for pan-Armenian unity and renewed national engagement even more evident.

The meeting provided an opportunity to review the outcomes of the Paris Conference, present the work carried out over the past three months, and discuss future steps. The Coordinating Committee reported on the activities undertaken since the conference, including working meetings among participants of the four roundtables, the preparation of reports and summary papers, as well as efforts to disseminate the conference’s outcomes through the press, social media, and community networks.

During the session, participants viewed a documentary video summarizing the conference, which once again underscored its significance and highlighted the positive momentum and new prospects that have emerged from it. The final summary reports of the conference’s roundtables were also presented. These addressed the strategic role of the Armenian Diaspora, the preservation of national identity and values, the development of Armenia–Diaspora relations, and the strengthening of Diasporan mobilization around shared national objectives.

Special attention was given to the conference’s dedicated website, where the complete conference archive will be made available, including reports, video recordings, photographs, the conference declaration, articles, interviews, and other materials. The website will ensure the long-term preservation of the conference’s work and make it broadly accessible to the public.

The concluding discussion focused on future directions. Participants reaffirmed that the principles and priorities articulated at the Paris Conference remain central components of the pan-Armenian agenda. They emphasized the importance of sustained, organized, and united action in advancing the national interests of Armenia, Artsakh, and Armenians throughout the world.

The online meeting once again confirmed that the Paris Conference was not a one-time event, but rather the beginning of an ongoing process of uniting the forces of the Armenian Diaspora, with the objective of mobilizing its collective potential in service of strategic pan-Armenian goals.

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