Category: Harut Sassounian

 

 

 

 

Expecting a public relations nightmare during the Armenian Genocide Centennial, Turkish officials are anxious to prevent further damage to their country’s already tarnished reputation.

 

Even though they have no intention to open the border with Armenia, Turkey’s leaders are pretending to do so by constantly issuing fake conciliatory statements. By falsely claiming that Turkey is in the process of patching up its differences with Armenia, Ankara’s hidden agenda is to discourage additional countries from recognizing the Armenian Genocide.

 

However, given Azerbaijan’s paranoid reaction to any talk of Turkey opening its border with Armenia, Turkish officials are forced to retreat by warning that the Armenia-Turkey border would remain closed, unless ‘progress’ is made on the Karabagh (Artsakh) issue.

 

Such contradictory Turkish statements have been issued countless times, ever since Armenia and Turkey signed Protocols in 2009 to open their mutual border and establish diplomatic relations. As recently as last week, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a closed session of the Turkish Parliament’s Foreign Relations Committee that preparations are underway to open the border with Armenia. When confronted by an opposition parliamentarian about Turkey’s true intentions, Davutoglu quickly reversed himself, stating that Armenia must first withdraw from Karabagh before the border could be opened.

 

The Foreign Minister made similar remarks a month ago while visiting Switzerland, when he announced that Turkey was looking for “creative ideas” to improve its relations with Armenia. Davutoglu’s creative or rather clever ploy is to avoid looking like an obstructionist, while making excuses for his country’s refusal to ratify the Protocols.

 

Back in 2009, the Turkish government appeared eager to ratify the Protocols which included various extraneous matters, including the formation of a committee of historians to study archival documents on the Armenian Genocide. When Azerbaijan vehemently objected to Turkish plans to open the border with Armenia, Turkey announced that it could no longer ratify the Protocols, even though it was clearly in its national interest to do so. Thus, despite its claims of being a major regional power, Turkey caved in to Azerbaijan’s veto. During his remarks in the Turkish Parliament on November 6, Davutoglu sheepishly reiterated that his country would open its border with Armenia only after obtaining Azerbaijan’s permission.

 

Clearly embarrassed by this leak to the press, a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman denied that Davutoglu had made such a statement. This is not a credible denial as Turkish officials have made similar statements many times before. One plausible explanation for reviving the prospect of opening the border and railway link to Armenia could be Turkey’s intent to pressure the newly-elected President of Georgia who refuses to support the long-planned Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway which was expected to circumvent Armenia.

 

To put an end to continuous Turkish exploitation of the Protocols, Pres. Serzh Sargsyan should carry out his promise of three years ago, when he warned that unless Turkey ‘shortly’ ratifies the Protocols, he would reconsider his position on this issue, implying that Armenia would withdraw from this agreement. Since the Protocols are still not ratified four years after they were signed, Pres. Sargsyan should declare them null and void.

 

Understandably, Armenian officials are reluctant to take such a drastic step, as they are concerned that the major powers would blame them for the Protocols’ failure. Armenia would prefer that the Turkish side be the first to withdraw from the Protocols, and thereby bear the blame for their collapse. Turkish officials could be playing the same blame game, by waiting for Armenia to be the first to withdraw.

 

In my view, Armenia can no longer afford to wait. With the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide less than 18 months away, Armenia’s President should do what he promised three years ago and withdraw his government’s signature from the ill-fated Protocols. Armenia could not be blamed for this action, as Turkish officials have repeatedly announced that they have no intention of ratifying the Protocols.

 

Not surprisingly, Davutoglu also declared last week that Turkish efforts to counter Armenian plans for the 100^th anniversary of the genocide are moving forward ‘at full speed.’ In order not to allow Turkey to undermine worldwide Armenian commemorations for the Genocide Centennial, Armenia’s leaders must renounce the Protocols long before April 24, 2015.

 

Furthermore, given the Turkish government’s century-old intransigence to acknowledge its culpability for the Genocide and refusal to make appropriate amends, Armenian officials should announce that they plan to seek justice, at long last, by applying to local, regional and international courts.

 

 

 

I visited the amazing land of Japan for the first time last month.

 

The minute I set foot on Tokyo’s Narita Airport, it felt like entering a surreal country — almost too good to be true!

 

The first thing that one notices is the extreme politeness of the Japanese people. Their repeated bowing to greet guests is incomparably more respectful than our customary casual handshake. I was amazed to find out that everyone gets the same excellent service, at no extra charge! No one gets tips, including waiters and parking attendants.

 

Japan is impeccably clean. No litter can be found anywhere. Piles of dirt or garbage are nowhere to be seen. You cannot find a single car in the streets with a dent or speck of dust. Even trucks hauling construction materials are covered with a net and hosed down before leaving the loading site, not to scatter dirt on city streets. Amazingly, after a typhoon directly hit Tokyo, there was no debris in the streets.

 

To top it all, there is very little crime in Japan due to the calm demeanor of the population and absence of guns. Despite Tokyo’s crowded sidewalks, everyone goes about their business, without pushing or shoving, arguing or raising their voices. Drivers respect traffic laws and conduct their cars in an orderly manner, without cutting in front of others or honking horns.

 

Many people are seen in the streets wearing medical masks. One would think that they were protecting themselves from catching the flu or some other disease from passersby. It turns out that the mask wearers were the ones who had the flu. They were being exceedingly considerate, not wishing to pass their germs onto others!

 

Besides visiting Japanese shrines and ancient palaces, I had the opportunity to engage in Armenian-related activities in this far away land. I was pleased to learn that the Republic of Armenia had an Embassy in Tokyo. Amb. Hrant Pogosyan and Attache Monica Simonyan received me graciously and briefed me about their relentless efforts to foster friendly relations between the two countries. We discussed opportunities for collaboration between the Armenian community in the United States and the Embassy of Armenia in Japan, particularly during the upcoming Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

 

A totally unexpected treat was the concert organized by the Armenian Embassy, celebrating the 110^th anniversary of Aram Khachaturian’s birth. Three top musicians, pianists Armen Babakhanian and Julietta Vardanyan, and cellist Aram Talalyan, had flown from Armenia especially for this one night performance. The Japanese audience, foreign diplomats, and a handful of Armenian students and businessmen were highly impressed with Khachaturian’s music and the virtuosity of the performers. I even met a Japanese scholar who spoke Armenian fluently. I had never heard Armenian spoken with a Japanese accent!

 

Japanese friends had kindly arranged that I meet CEO’s of several major corporations in Tokyo and Kyoto and discuss investment possibilities in Armenia. I was highly impressed by state of the art stem-cell research laboratory at Kyoto University.

 

Later that day I had the unique opportunity to give a lecture to a group of bright university students and their professors. They spoke English quite well and asked numerous questions, even though I was told that Japanese students normally do not ask questions. My talk covered the Armenian Genocide, the Artsakh (Karabagh) conflict, Syria’s civil war, the Arab Spring, the controversial issue of Comfort Women, and the necessity of peaceful resolution of conflicts.

 

After returning to Tokyo, my hosts surprised me by presenting me from the archives of The Japan Times newspaper, a copy of the issue dated Oct. 4, 1998, which had a half-page article about my humanitarian efforts for Armenia on behalf of the United Armenian Fund.

 

My final meeting was with three high-ranking Japanese government officials with whom I discussed at length Japan’s relations with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, China, Russia, and South Korea.

 

My conversations with Japanese university students and government leaders made me realize that Armenians have made a habit of concentrating all of their political efforts on the Middle East, Europe, North and South America, and totally ignoring the large number of strategically important countries in Asia.

 

It may be politically and economically more productive to extend the span of our attention to countries whose citizens know hardly anything about Armenia and Armenians.

 

 

 

This is the amazing tale of the Turkish government handing over to Istanbul’s Armenian Patriarchate in the 1920’s some of the church effects looted during the Genocide.

 

According to attorney Loutfig Kouyoumjian’s book, Hay Hamankayin Antsoutartser: 1927-1950 [Armenian Community Happenings: 1927-1950], published in Istanbul in 1950, the Turkish government had turned over to the Armenian Patriarchate 64 large crates full of church effects. Kouyoumjian was a member of the Patriarchate’s Finance Committee.

 

The returned items included crowns inlaid with diamonds and pearls, vestments, garments with gold threads and silver crosses, a belt buckle from the famous Abousheikh Church with golden latches decorated by diamonds, emeralds and rubies, 72 rugs belonging to Sourp Garabed Monastery and Sourp Krikor Lousavorich Church of Gesaria, and churches in Talas and other regions, and a gold box covered with precious stones containing several saints’ relics. Another crate had the vestments of Gomidas Vartabed, his gold fountain pen, and valuable manuscripts of his musical arrangements of church liturgy. The Locum Tenens Archbishop Kevork Arslanian signed a receipt acknowledging his acceptance of these items and appointed Archpriest Drtad Boyajian as their guardian.

 

The list of the returned items prepared by the Patriarchate included “scrolls, manuscripts, and antique books. In keeping with the laws on antiquities, the books were delivered to the Istanbul Museum.”

 

These revelations raise several important questions. What happened to the returned church effects? Our investigation indicates that none of these items are currently in the custody of the Armenian Patriarchate. A few of them were handed to Armenian clergymen of Istanbul, while others were sent to Etchmiadzin. The overwhelming majority simply vanished several decades ago, most probably stolen and sold.

 

Mr. Kouyoumjian reported in his book that in the late 1920’s, Judge Haroutioun Mosdichian, Chairman of the Patriarchate’s Executive Committee, informed the Finance Committee that he had solid evidence that several of the returned silver pieces were sold at the Istanbul jewelry market. Mosdichian was a highly respected individual who had occupied important positions in the Turkish government.  The Finance Committee immediately sealed the room where the returned items were stored. The next day, Abp. Arslanian broke the seal and left the door of the storage room open. The Archbishop then dismissed the Committee members.

 

A special investigative committee, including Mr. Kouyoumjian, then conducted a thorough search and transmitted its findings to the Executive Committee. The latter blamed not only Mosdichian but also Abp. Arslanian of wrongdoings regarding the returned church effects. Abp. Arslanian in turn accused Patriarch Mesrob Naroyan of being responsible for the missing items. After Patriarch Naroyan formed a committee to update the list of the remaining church effects, he discovered that almost nothing was left of the contents of the 64 crates delivered earlier to the Patriarchate.

 

In his book, Kouyoumjian relates another strange tale regarding the rugs delivered to the Patriarchate by the Turkish government. On March 8, 1924, two Turks — Haje Ismail, the son of Molla Khalil of Gesaria, and Mehmet of Talas — presented to Abp. Arslanian a written demand, claiming that nine of the rugs had nothing to do with the Armenian Church and must be returned to them. When the Patriarchate rejected their request, the Turks filed a lawsuit against Abp. Arslanian, claiming that the nine rugs were worth 1,975 Ottoman gold pieces.

 

On January 26, 1924, attorney Kouyoumjian defended the Patriarchate’s interests in court. Strangely, the Patriarchate agreed to settle the lawsuit by paying 500 gold pieces to the two Turks. Several years later, when Mr. Kouyoumjian inquired about the disposition of those rugs, he was told that there were no such rugs at the Patriarchate.

 

In light of this newly found reference to the Turkish government’s return of church effects, the Armenian Patriarchate must now conduct a thorough investigation of its archives to review its records of the missing items.

 

More importantly, by having returned the 64 crates, the Turkish government had in effect admitted the theft of Armenian Church properties during the Genocide. A lawsuit must be filed not only against the Istanbul Museum for the antique books it improperly received in the 1920’s, but also against museums and libraries throughout Turkey for the return to the Armenian Patriarchate of the vast number of religious effects looted from several thousand Armenian churches!

Awash in billions of petrodollars, but lacking a moral compass, Azerbaijan has been busy handing out loads of money to anyone who is willing to heed its propaganda. Baku’s bribery scheme, known worldwide as “caviar diplomacy,” has now ensnared Washington’s movers and shakers. Apparently, there is no shortage of Americans who are eager to sell their souls for a fistful of dollars. As a novice in the field of lobbying, Azerbaijan has quickly learned the tricks of the trade from its ‘elder brother’ Turkey, a well-versed master of political deception. The website of the U.S. Dept. of Justice lists the names and amounts paid by various Azeri entities to 11 American firms: — Azerbaijan’s Embassy in Washington pays $35,000 per month to Patton Boggs “for advice and assistance on U.S.-Azerbaijan bilateral relations”; $18,250 per month to Melwood Communications to assist in “media relations and communications strategy”; $20,000 per month to the DCI Group for “public relations and media outreach, and building relationships with think tanks”; and $45,000 per month to The Podesta Group to carry out public relations. — The Livingston Group, named after former House Speaker Bob Livingston, who left public office in disgrace, has so far received close to $2 million for lobbying on behalf of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry. — The International Bank of Azerbaijan pays Jefferson Waterman International (JWI) $25,000 per month “to develop relations with American institutions” and “media relations strategy.” JWI receives another $25,000 per month from “The Presidency of Azerbaijan” for counseling on media strategy. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Finance owns 51% of the shares of the International Bank of Azerbaijan. — The Azerbaijan America Alliance has so far paid Fabiani & Company $2.4 million “for planning and executing strategies to encourage research and advocacy about the Azeri people, country, culture and international relations.” A recent gala dinner in Washington, hosted by the Azerbaijan America Alliance, was attended by 700 guests, including Obama administration officials, members of congress, and foreign diplomats. Notorious congressional opponents of Armenian issues attended the banquet, including Senators Saxby Chambliss and Richard Burr, House Speaker John Boehner and former Cong. Dan Burton.   — Roberti White LLC is paid $20,834 per month by SOCAR USA, the American subsidiary of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, to explore business opportunities in the United States. — Since money is no object, even the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles can afford to hire its own public relations firm. Over the years, it has engaged the services of Sitrick and Company ($50,000 per year); The Toolshed Group LLC ($35,000), founded by Jason Katz, former Director of Public Affairs for the American Jewish Committee; and The Potomac Square Group (amount undisclosed) “to provide media outreach…and interaction with editors.” Now comes yet another ex-congressman who is chasing Azerbaijan’s Almighty Dollar! Former New York Cong. Michael McMahon is handling public affairs/government relations for the so-called “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” a territory recognized only by its occupying power — Turkey! McMahon, who served on the House Foreign Affairs Committee until his defeat in 2010, is leading the lobbying effort on behalf of Herrick, Feinstein LLP of New York which won a $200,000 per year contract to arrange congressional visits to occupied Northern Cyprus and improve its public image in the media. McMahon also handled the development and construction of Turkey’s expanded Consulate in New York City. It is, therefore, not surprising that McMahon’s name surfaced last week, trying to legitimize Pres. Ilham Aliyev’s falsified re-election in which he gained 85% of the vote, while his nine opponents collectively received the remaining 15%! While international observers criticized Aliyev’s re-election as “unfair and rife with fraud,” The New York Times quoted McMahon as stating that the vote was “honest, fair and really efficient. There were much shorter lines than in America, and no hanging chads,” a reference to the disputed ballots in Florida during the 2000 U.S. presidential race. Shockingly, The N.Y. Times fell victim to McMahon’s ploy, deciding to title its article on the fraudulent vote as “Observers Differ on Fairness of Election in Azerbaijan.” The Times thus equated one man’s pro-Azeri propaganda with the overwhelming evidence of widespread fraud confirmed by respectable international observers, such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Fortunately, The Times pointed out that “the split in assessments seemed to reflect an aggressive lobbying effort by the Aliyev government to portray the election as fair.”   Armenian-Americans cannot compete with Azerbaijan’s lavish handouts. They don’t have to. Since the truth is on their side, they do not need to spend millions on lobbying to present the facts as they are!

 

This column is devoted to Serge Samoniantz, former English editor of Asbarez newspaper for 10 years, and current editor of The California Courier for the last 25 years.

Serge is a modest person who has worked quietly most of his life, shunning any attention to himself. When I told him last Sunday night that he was about to be honored by Asbarez, Serge whimsically replied in his typical self-deprecating style: “Did they run out of people to honor?”

The occasion for honoring Serge was the banquet celebrating the 105^th anniversary of Asbarez, one of the world’s oldest Armenian newspapers. Asbarez began publication in 1908 in Fresno, California, and moved to Los Angeles in the 1970’s.

While my weekly columns receive considerable attention by being published in dozens of newspapers worldwide and posted on hundreds websites in half dozen languages, Serge quietly prepares The California Courier for publication each week. He is in charge of everything from news gathering to editing, layout, and advertising.

The management of Asbarez should be commended for honoring Serge. Even though he hasn’t worked for Asbarez since 1988, the newspaper’s current Armenian and English editors, Apo Boghigian and Ara Khachatourian, had not forgotten their former colleague and wished to express their appreciation for his good work a quarter century later. It is not very often that Armenian organizations remember their employees and organize banquets in their honor.

While it is proper to recognize those who donate considerable sums to Armenian institutions, since not much can be accomplished without their generous contributions, it is just as important to honor humble servants of the nation, who have devoted their entire lives to the community, such as teachers, journalists, and clergymen.

Making the celebration truly memorable was the surprise announcement that His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, had bestowed upon Mr. Samoniantz the Mesrob Mashdots Medal. His Eminence Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian, Prelate of the Western Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, read the special encyclical prepared by the Catholicosate, as he pinned the Medal of Honor on Mr. Samoniantz.

I was asked to introduce Serge at the October 20^th banquet, held at the Baghramian Hall in Montebello. Here are my introductory remarks which include a short biography of Mr. Samoniantz:

Serge was born in 1943 in Marseilles, France, where he lived until age 9. His family moved to San Paolo, Brazil, in 1952 and then to Massachusetts in 1961. He joined the Armenian Youth Federation and then the ARF Keri Gomideh in 1966, after moving to Montebello, California.

In 1964, Serge enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and was honorably discharged as sergeant in 1970. After completing his military service, Serge attended California State University at Los Angeles, graduating with a degree in History. He later received a Certificate from UCLA in Public Relations.

Starting in 1973, Serge assumed the editorship of the English edition of Asbarez for seven years. He then served as Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee, Western U.S., from 1983 to 1984. He then resumed his previous post as the English editor of Asbarez from 1985 to 1988.

In 1985, Serge and I were part of the ANC delegation in Geneva, Switzerland, successfully lobbying for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the United Nations.

In 1988, Serge joined the California Courier as editor where he has been employed for 25 years. He is a consummate journalist and a top notch professional. It has been a great honor and pleasure for me to work with him both as a close friend and colleague for a quarter century!

Serge is a quiet man and tireless worker. He has been a life-long activist in various social and political issues and a staunch defender of the Armenian Cause.

Sharing the joy of Serge’s honor was his family, including his wife Mariam, sister-in-law Laura Manukian, his son Raffi and wife Nano, and their two children, Emilly and Sebouh.

Congratulations to Serge Samoniantz for his unwavering dedication to Armenian journalism for the past 35 years and congratulations to the staff of Asbarez for their hard work and commitment to continue the legacy of those who founded the newspaper 105 years ago!