Author: Harut Sassounian

In October 2021, the Patriarch of Istanbul, Sahag Mashalian, delivered at the Holy Hovhannes Church in the Kumkape district of Istanbul a very strange sermon full of conspiracies and fear-mongering statements. His anti-scientific and irresponsible words were intended to deter his parishioners from getting vaccinated against the coronavirus, thus endangering their lives.

In his sermon, the Patriarch quoted from chapter 13, verses 16-18 of the Book of Revelation in the Bible. I am not a theologian, but I believe he is misusing verses from the Bible to spread falsehoods and disinformation. The Book of Revelation, an enigmatic work by Apostle John, has many interpretations, but linking his writings to a virus that surfaced two thousand years after his death is senseless and dangerous, particularly in Turkey which has the sixth highest number of deaths in the world from the coronavirus.

The Patriarch began his sermon by referring to the following passage of the Book of Revelation: The beast “forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name…. That number is 666.”

Here are excerpts from the Patriarch’s bizarre sermon which I have translated into English:

“And whoever will not have this seal [of the beast] will not be able to do any business, will not be able to travel, [and] will not even be able to eat bread…. Therefore, placing a technology chip in our body, on our hand or our forehead, we understand that it is the symbol of perfect control. This means that wherever you go, they will know where you are. Whatever information exists about you will be in it [the chip]: your illnesses, your relationships, your condition, [and] your bank accounts. It will all be in it. Your health will be in it. And without it, you will not be able to do anything. And, of course, this will be presented to us as progress, as a technological advantage. And sometimes we will willingly take this chip.

“These are no longer theories. In certain European countries, this system has started. What will we do? What will we be? When the time comes, they will compel us to have such chips in which it’s written 666 or the name of that son of Satan. What will we do? Christians have always spoken about this topic as a musing that it will happen in the future. People in the future should think about it. But it has come now. It came to our doors. In a few years, at the latest in the year 2030, this development will become a reality.

“What will we Christians do? Our church leaders, the Primates, should speak about this issue which they do not. But the faithful at the bottom of the church speak because the prophecy is so explicit, the word of God is so clear that it is spoken about. And what will happen when the leaders of the church, the Primates, those with the rank of Bishop do not talk about it, when the people at the bottom speak about it, then this will be spoken about in an exaggerated and redundant manner? The church has a doctrine called eschatology. It is the knowledge of the last days. In our faith we say that Christ shall return. This is an integral part of our faith. Therefore, the doctrine of the church, in a clear manner, should elucidate this topic to the Christian communities.

“Christian leaders should get together and speak about this issue, while it is still early. After these things happen, it will be too late. We should now come together and talk. Church and bishopric meetings should be held about this topic now, while we are still free and have the ability. In a few years, we will not have that ability. As a Patriarch, I call upon my people and church leaders to get interested in this topic and blow the horn. Because in the Bible, for us, for Christian leaders, there is a dreadful statement. By the mouth of prophet Ezekiel God says: I appointed you a watchman over this people. If you see the sword, the danger, and do not sound the alarm, and the sword comes, then their blood will reach you. But if you sound the alarm and say that the sword is coming, take precautions, and if they do not do that, the sword comes, then you are free of their blood. Therefore, for Christian leaders, a topic that is redundant or exaggerated, when Christian leaders come together and speak about a topic that is considered shameful, can speak about it. I commend those who listen to us and my people within the reach of my voice: the day has come! We can no longer postpone the eschatology. We are obligated to apply the healthy doctrine in our days, spread the faith and acquire the means to see what we can do….”

To show that the Patriarch’s alarming words about vaccination are not based on religion, all we have to do is refer to the statement issued by the Catholicos of All Armenians, Karekin II, about the vaccine.

According to a recent dispatch by Azatutyun.am, “The Armenian Apostolic Church dismissed religious reasons given by its believers refusing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.” The Church’s Supreme Spiritual Council stressed that “vaccination does not pose a spiritual danger.”

The Church also announced that Catholicos Karekin II and many other clergymen have been vaccinated.

I hope Armenians will listen to the advice of the Catholicos and not that of the Patriarch of Istanbul regarding the coronavirus vaccine to save their own lives as well as the lives of those around them.

There is nothing wrong with being proud of one’s nationality, ethnic origin or religion. However, when that pride becomes so fanatical, reaching the level of absurdity, then we are dealing with someone who has lost all sense of reality.

Turkish political analyst Burak Bekdil acknowledged in his article published by BESA Center Perspectives: “The Turkish-Islamist psyche is susceptible to…the pitfalls of honor, fatalism, conspiracism, bombast, publicity, and confusion.”

Over the years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made many bizarre statements that raise suspicions about his mental sanity.

Here are some examples of Erdogan’s nutty statements.

In 2014, Erdogan told a group of Latin American Muslims visiting Istanbul that Muslim Pilgrims discovered America several centuries before Christopher Columbus: “It is alleged that the American continent was discovered by Columbus in 1492. In fact, Muslim sailors reached the American continent 314 years before Columbus in 1178. …In his memoirs, Christopher Columbus mentions the existence of a mosque atop a hill on the coast of Cuba. A mosque would look perfect on that hill today.” Of course, Columbus never said such a thing in his memoirs.

In another outlandish claim, Pres. Erdogan announced that Turkey will send a spaceship with a Turkish astronaut to the moon in 2023 on the centennial of the Republic of Turkey. He speculated that a female astronaut may be a part of the Turkish space team. It would be interesting to see how Turkey, a bankrupt country, could spend billions of dollars on such a far-fetched adventure, not to mention its lack of space technology. Maybe this whole topic is a hoax to divert the people’s attention from their woes and empty pockets to gazing at the moon and stars! A skeptical Turk sarcastically said: “We cannot go to the supermarket, so how will we go to space?” Another Turk remarked, “We were not able to distribute masks [for COVID] to citizens, so how do we go to space?”

Before Erdogan can fantasize about going to space, he should worry about the collapsing Lira, millions of unemployed Turks, and a huge percentage of his people suffering from abject poverty. According to Turkish sources, 34 million Turks are on the verge of starvation. In the first six months of this year, 1.6 million Turkish families had their electricity and gas cut off because they could not pay their bills.

Turkish analyst Burak Bekdil wrote that he “grew up in classrooms filled up with mottoes like ‘A Turk is worth the world,’ ‘Turks have had to fight the seven biggest world powers,’ and ‘A Turk’s only friend is another Turk.’ Our textbooks taught us that the supreme Turkish race dominated the entire world for centuries; that the Ottoman Empire collapsed only after a coalition of world powers attacked it; that we lost WWI because we had allied with the Germans, who were defeated (not us); and that one day, we will make the entire planet Turkish. We were taught that an Ottoman warrior could keep on fighting even after having been beheaded by the [Byzantine] enemy.”

As a result, Bekdil explained, “Turks are hungry for fairy tales about the good life they did not get to enjoy over the past century, but believe they deserve. Any feel-good news propaganda, even Erdogan’s famous ‘The West, including the Germans, are jealous of us!’ tirade, finds millions of receptive listeners in Turkey’s post-modern marketplace of absurdity.”

In an article titled, “‘Jesus Was Turkish’: the Bizarre Resurgence of Pseudo-Turkology,” Luka Ivan Jukic wrote in NEW/LINES Magazine: “You would be forgiven for not knowing that former U.S. President Barack Obama was a Turk. Or that Jesus Christ and the Prophet Muhammad were, likewise, of Turkic origin. You would be forgiven for not knowing that Russia is really a great Turkic nation, that Kazakhs and the Japanese are genetically identical or that the legendary English King Arthur was, you guessed it, a Turk. You would be forgiven because none of this is true. Yet in countries from central Europe to Central Asia and everywhere in between, supposed historical facts like these and the theories they support have made their way from the minds of overzealous and pseudo-academics into national school textbooks, popular culture and, indeed, official government ideology.”

In 1932, the Turkish language Institute invented the fake “Sun Language Theory” which claimed that “the Turkish language was the source of all human language and therefore all human civilization,” Jukic wrote. “Linguists from the Institute claimed that language had been invented by sun-worshipping proto-Turks in Central Asia as they babbled at the sun.” Furthermore, the Turkish History Thesis claimed that “Turks had brought civilization to China, Europe, India and elsewhere when they migrated from the Eurasian Steppe.” These pseudo-theories found their way into Turkish textbooks and popular books, brainwashing several generations of Turks. Most adherents of these pseudo-scientific claims are the followers of Pres. Erdogan.

There is no super race. All people are equal. They are all God’s children. While claims of superiority may satisfy a vain human inclination, no one should treat other races as inferior.

A lot has been written about larger than life Sen. Bob Dole since his passing on December 5 at the ripe old age of 98. He was a soldier, Kansas State Representative for two years, member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 8 years, U.S. Senator for 27 years, three-term Senate Majority Leader for 11 years, Republican vice presidential nominee in 1976, and presidential nominee in 1996. He was a decorated war hero and champion of the Armenian Cause.

His life took a tragic turn after he got critically wounded in Italy during World War II while serving in the U.S. Army, crippling his shoulder and right arm. Armenian orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Hampar Kelikian, was able to save Dole’s wounded arm, after seven surgeries which the miraculous doctor performed free of charge.

More importantly than treating him physically, Dr. Kelikian boosted the self-confidence of the future Senate leader to focus on what he was left with rather than complaining about what he had lost. This was an important lesson that Bob Dole kept in mind the rest of his life.

Dr. Kelikian was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. He shared with his patient, Bob Dole, the hellish experience of the Armenian Genocide, during which he lost several members of his family and barely survived himself. Those horrible stories left their indelible mark on young Dole who never forgot the Armenian tragedy. When he rose to the highest ranks of power, he did his best to bring a degree of justice to the long-suffering Armenian nation by trying to get the United States acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.

Dole’s valiant efforts in the Senate on behalf of the Armenian people were thwarted by the Clinton Administration and Sen. Robert Byrd (Democrat-West Virginia). However, 30 years later, the publicity generated by Sen. Dole’s persistent dedication to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide paid off. Fortunately, Bob Dole lived long enough to see the fruits of his untiring efforts, when Pres. Joe Biden, Bob Dole’s close friend and political rival, issued a Statement on April 24, 2021 recognizing the Armenian Genocide. Dole sent a personal note to Pres. Biden thanking him for his acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide.

I would like to share with readers my recollections of accompanying Sen. Dole on a fact-finding trip to Armenia, October 13-15, 1997, to assess Kirk Kerkorian’s planned multi-million dollar humanitarian projects through his Lincy Foundation. The delegation included Alice Kelikian, the daughter of Dr. Kelikian, Armenia’s Ambassador Rouben Shugarian, Chairman of Lincy Jim Aljian and his wife Marjorie, two of Senator’s aides, and Sue Temkin, a tax attorney from Dole’s Washington law firm. We travelled on board Kerkorian’s private jet. I travelled with the delegation in my capacity as the person in charge of the Lincy projects in Armenia.

In a gesture reserved to visiting heads of state, then Prime Minister Robert Kocharyan and several high-ranking officials came to the Yerevan airport to welcome Sen. Dole to Armenia. Also present at the airport was the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Peter Tomsen. Although Pres. Levon Ter-Petrossian was out of the country on a visit to France, he spoke with Sen. Dole by telephone.

Sen. Dole, as a hero to the Armenian nation, was received enthusiastically both by the public and officials. During the couple of days we were in Armenia, we met with the Prime Minister, Chairman of the Central Bank, Minister of Trade and Industry, Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (their respective ministers were with the President in France), Chairman of Parliament and his two deputies, Chairmen of all parliamentary committees, local businessmen and bankers. Sen. Dole also met with leaders of three opposition parties and held a press conference.

We visited the U.S. Embassy, where we were briefed by the Ambassador, Commercial Attaché, and representative of USAID. We also met with Catholicos of All-Armenians Karekin I at the Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin. We toured a state-of-the-art clothing factory owned by a businesswoman who had 500 employees. Finally, we visited the Children’s Cardiac Center where Dr. Hrayr Hovaguimian, an Armenian-American, was the chief surgeon.

Sen. Dole was deeply touched during his visit to the 70 young children at the Nork Orphanage. When he learned that the staff of the orphanage had not received their salaries for several months, he graciously offered to provide their back pay.

Another moving experience was Sen. Dole’s visit to the Armenian Genocide Memorial Monument and Museum where he laid a wreath. He and Alice Kelikian planted a tree in memory of Dr. Hampar Kelikian.

This was Sen. Dole’s second trip to Armenia. He and his wife Elizabeth visited Armenia in 1989, following the December 1988 earthquake. In 2019, the Republic of Armenia bestowed the prestigious “Order of Honor” on Sen. Dole.

Sen. Dole was still active at the age of 97. On September 15, 2020, Sen. Dole and his lobbying firm, Alston & Bird, signed a contract with the Armenian government to “monitor current events relevant to US-Armenia relations and provide strategic counsel with respect to improvement of that relationship.” Sen. Dole wrote: “These services may include outreach to United States Government officials as well as Members of Congress and their staffs.” The contract was for one month at a cost of $10,000.

The Armenian nation will long remember this great man who never forgot the Armenian surgeon who restored his health and did his best to bring acknowledgment to the Armenian Genocide.

Israeli journalist Yossi Melman wrote a lengthy critical article in the Haaretz newspaper about Israel’s sale of banned deadly cluster bombs to Azerbaijan to kill and maim innocent Armenian civilians in Artsakh. The article, although published on Oct. 22, 2020, retains its relevance given the fact that these cluster bombs were not only used in last year’s Artsakh war by Azerbaijan, but may also be used in a future war.

Amnesty International confirmed that Azerbaijan used Israeli cluster bombs in the 2020 Artsakh war. These lethal bombs exploded in a residential area near the city of Stepanakert, the capital of Artsakh.

“The use of cluster bombs in any circumstances is banned under international humanitarian law, so their use to attack civilian areas is particularly dangerous and will only lead to further deaths and injuries,” said Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s acting chief for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. “Cluster bombs are inherently indiscriminate weapons, and their deployment in residential areas is absolutely appalling and unacceptable.”

Melman explained that “a cluster bomb is a kind of container holding a bundle of small bombs. The mother bomb explodes at a certain height and, over a wide area, scatters the smaller bombs, which explode a short time later. The munitions can be launched from cannons of various sizes, with diameters up to 155 mm, from launchers, helicopters and planes.” Children often pick up unexploded cluster bombs mistaking them for toys, resulting in their death or injury.

Melman wrote that he asked Israel’s Defense Ministry, the Israel Defense Forces and the Foreign Ministry “on whether — and if so, when — Israel supplied cluster bombs to Azerbaijan.” Not surprisingly, he received no response.

Melman remarked that Israel’s Defense Ministry, “true to its aggressive habits, is loath to give explanations and refuses to answer questions it doesn’t like. It seems to have something to hide, especially when it comes to its overly intimate relationship with Azerbaijan.”

Melman asked a pertinent question: “Why is Israel arming Azerbaijan against Armenia?” There would be a huge worldwide outcry if Armenia were to transfer missiles to Hamas or Hezbollah to attack Israeli citizens. Israel arming Azerbaijan is no different, but where is the international condemnation of Israel?

Israel used cluster bombs on several occasions: In the 1973 war against several Arab states, the wars on Lebanon in 1978, 1982 and 2006, and the Gaza war in 2008-09. Melman reported that “this led to a condemnation by then-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and to tension in the United States, because the firing apparently violated the restrictions on using cluster bombs when the weapon was supplied in 1976.”

The Winograd Committee, formed by the Israeli government to review the appropriateness of Israel’s military actions in Lebanon in 2006, “harshly criticized the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas,” according to Melman. It is illegal to use cluster bombs. It is also illegal for the United States to sell them to Israel, which in turn illegally sold them to Azerbaijan.

Regrettably, neither the Republic of Armenia nor the Armenian-American community complained to the American government about Israel’s illegal transfer of U.S. cluster bombs to Azerbaijan.

Melman reported that “in December 2008, the Convention on Cluster Munitions was signed in Oslo. It prohibits the use, development, manufacture, storage and transfer of cluster bombs, which it defines as ‘a conventional ammunition that is designed to disperse or release explosive submunitions’ from a container. Over 100 countries signed the accord, which went into effect in 2010.”

Israel, however, refused to join the convention that banned cluster bombs. Ironically, Israel was quick to condemn Syria for its reported use of cluster bombs inside its own country. It is not clear why Armenia refused to join the convention which would have given it a stronger footing to condemn the illegal use of cluster bombs by Azerbaijan and Turkey, neither one of which joined the convention. In addition to selling cluster bombs to Azerbaijan, Israel also sold them to Turkey, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Romania, Switzerland, Great Britain, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela.

According to Melman, Azerbaijan was the largest market for Israeli cluster bombs, along with various cannons and rocket launchers. “Israel sold dual-purpose munitions components, which can also be used in cluster bombs, in a way that let Israel bypass the convention.”

Melman reported that, a year ago, Israeli “activist Eli Joseph, who takes part in efforts to ban weapons sales by Israel to dictatorial regimes,” petitioned in vain Israel’s High Court of Justice, “demanding that Baku and Jerusalem’s military connections be revealed. Also, Joseph and his colleagues in the Jewish Heart organization demonstrated in front of the Knesset against arms exports to Azerbaijan, under the slogan ‘No to war crimes, no to the murder of innocents.’” It is heart-warming to see righteous Israelis objecting to the immoral actions of their government.

By selling lethal weapons to the murderous regime of Azerbaijan, Israel has undermined its moral standing and has become an accomplice to Azeri war crimes.

The White House announced recently that it has invited over 100 countries to a virtual ‘Summit for Democracy’ on Dec. 9-10.

Among the invitees to the Summit are Armenia and Georgia, but not Azerbaijan and Turkey which are dictatorships. Interestingly, the latter two countries did not complain about their absence from the Summit until they found out that Armenia was invited.

The White House announced that President Joe Biden has said: “the challenge of our time is to demonstrate that democracies can deliver by improving the lives of their own people and by addressing the greatest problems facing the wider world.” The President “has rebuilt our alliances with our democratic partners and allies, rallying the world to stand up against human rights abuses, to address the climate crisis, and to fight the global pandemic, including by donating hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to countries around the globe.”

The White House announcement also stated that this Summit is “to be followed in roughly a year’s time by a second, in-person Summit. The virtual Summit, to take place on December 9 and 10, [2021], will galvanize commitments and initiatives across three principal themes: defending against authoritarianism, fighting corruption, and promoting respect for human rights. Following a year of consultation, coordination, and action, President Biden will then invite world leaders to gather once more to showcase progress made against their commitments. Both Summits will bring together heads of state, civil society, philanthropy, and the private sector, serving as an opportunity for world leaders to listen to one another and to their citizens, share successes, drive international collaboration, and speak honestly about the challenges facing democracy so as to collectively strengthen the foundation for democratic renewal.”

After the White House made this announcement, a heated discussion broke out as to why certain countries were invited to the Summit, while others were not? Obviously, this Summit is intended to form a coalition led by the United States against its rivals, China and Russia. Do some of the invited leaders have any concerns about being viewed as “pro-Western” and “anti-China and Russia?” This is a particularly sensitive issue for Armenia which has strong military and economic ties with Russia, and is in the process of establishing closer relations with China. How will China and Russia view Armenia’s participation in such an adversarial Summit? Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who has accepted the U.S. invitation, has to give serious thought to the negative Russian reaction for his participation in such a Summit. However, the refusal to participate would also have consequences with the United States.

While Armenia welcomes its invitation to the Summit for Democracy, Pashinyan has regrettably regressed from his initially-declared democratic values by harassing or jailing protesters, muzzling the media, and taking unilateral decisions without any input from the public or even those in his ruling circle. For someone who came to power by espousing democratic ideals, Pashinyan bizarrely campaigned during the June elections while holding a hammer in his hand and threatening to bash the heads of his political opponents.

By inviting Armenia to the Summit, the United States is probably enticing the Armenian government to come closer to the West. A U.S. official “involved in the planning of the summit told Reuters that invites were sent to countries with different experiences of democracy from all regions of the world. ‘This was not about endorsing, ‘You’re a democracy, you are not a democracy.’ That is not the process we went through.’ Biden administration officials say they had to ‘make choices’ to ensure regional diversity and broad participation,” Reuters reported.

Naturally, Azerbaijan and Turkey were not too pleased that Armenia was invited to the Summit, while they were excluded. In an article published by AzerNews newspaper, titled, “Democracy summit or clear example of double standards,” Ayya Lmahamad quoted Vugar Iskandarov, a member of Azerbaijan’s Parliament, complaining: “it is ridiculous that countries such as Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Hungary are not invited to the summit, where the level of democracy is much higher than that in the majority of invited countries.” Iskandarov must be completely blind to the grave human rights abuses and absence of democracy in the autocratic regimes of Azerbaijan and Turkey.

The Azeri news website Day.az went even further by claiming that Armenia was invited due to the influence of Armenian-Americans in the United States: “No need to go deep into the previous years, it is enough to see what has been happening and continues to happen in Washington-Armenian Diaspora relations over the past year. The curtsies of American diplomacy towards Yerevan, the endless anti-Azerbaijani discussions and decisions made at the insistence of the Armenian lobby speak for themselves.”

While this Azeri website made a completely exaggerated assessment of the power of Armenian-Americans in Washington, nevertheless, it is a welcome compliment. Azerbaijan and Turkey may not fear Armenia, but they seem terrified of the political clout of the Armenian lobby in the United States!